Israel tightens Gaza siege and forms national unity government

Israel has formed an emergency war cabinet and unity government as it tightens its siege of the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu struck the deal on Wednesday with Benny Gantz, head of the centre-right opposition National Unity party, in the wake of Saturday’s deadly attack by Hamas.

The agreement came as the siege brought down Gaza’s power supply, leaving residents alarmed they would soon lose contact with the outside world and as Israel sent tens of thousands of army personnel to the border with the enclave.

Mr Netanyahu’s and Mr Gantz’s parties said the emergency government would serve for the duration of the war. They added that, while the conflict lasts, no legislation will proceed that does not concern it.

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While Mr Gantz, a former army chief, has not been assigned a clear portfolio, the three-person war cabinet will take crucial decisions about the conduct of the war. It will also include Mr Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant, who comes from the prime minister’s Likud party.

The terms of the deal suggest that the government will put on hold a judicial overhaul that has polarised Israeli society and triggered deep divisions in its military.

Some opposition figures had demanded that Mr Netanyahu drop far-right members of his coalition as the price of joining the government. The centrist Yesh Atid party was not included in Wednesday’s announcement, nor were smaller left-wing groups.

But Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz – who co-operated in a short-lived government that collapsed in acrimony in 2021 – agreed that five members of the opposition leader’s party would join the cabinet without others departing.

The deal is a bid to bypass the rift in Israeli politics ahead of what threatens to be a deeply challenging and prolonged military campaign.

“This affords Israel a modicum of unity for the duration of the war,” said Natan Sachs at the Brookings Institution. “The political interests of the members will diverge sharply in the day after.” Israel has mobilised 360,000 reservists as it prepares for the widely expected ground operation in Gaza, from which it withdrew in 2005 and which Hamas has controlled since 2007.

“We have sent our infantry, armoured soldiers, our artillery corps and many other soldiers from the reserves,” said Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces. “They are now close to the Gaza Strip, getting ready to execute the mission that they have been given ... to make sure that Hamas at the end of this war won’t have any military capabilities.”

Israel has cut off electricity, fuel and water to the Hamas-controlled territory and the enclave’s only power station has now run out of fuel, bringing down the mains supply.

“Their local power station has collapsed and there is no electricity in Gaza,” said Israel Katz, energy minister. “We will continue to tighten the siege until the Hamas threat to Israel and the world is removed. What was will not be.”

John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesperson, said the Biden administration was in discussions with Israel and Egypt about creating a humanitarian “safe passage” corridor for civilians in Gaza caught up in the conflict.

The UN estimates that nearly 300,000 Palestinians have been displaced within the 40km strip, with many rushing to UN-run schools and refugee camps to seek shelter from the Israeli bombardment. Its Palestinian relief agency said on Wednesday that 11 UN staffers had been killed in air strikes.

Israel said it had hit more than 2,600 “Hamas targets” in the blockaded territory, while more than 5,000 rockets had been fired from Gaza.

Palestinian health authorities say 1,055 people have been killed by the Israeli bombardment of the enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people, since Saturday’s incursion.

The Palestinian Red Crescent added that three Palestinians were killed and nine injured in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, in a sign of the potential for tensions to spread.

The death toll in Israel has reached 1,200 and the military said the figure would continue to rise with more discoveries of bodies of civilians killed by the Hamas fighters who breached the Gaza border.

Combined fatalities reported by Israelis and Palestinians now surpass 2,000, not including 1,500 Hamas fighters whose bodies Israel says it has retrieved.

Mr Conricus added that the “dozens” of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza included many people with dual nationalities, including US, UK, French, German and Ukrainian passport holders.

The Israeli army also said it had on Tuesday night received a first cargo plane carrying “advanced armaments” from the US “designed to facilitate significant military operations”.

Washington is sending ammunition and interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome air defence system on which Israel relies to neutralise rocket attacks.

The US has moved a naval carrier strike group, including its largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, from near Italy to the eastern Mediterranean to deter the Iran-backed Hizbullah militant group in Lebanon, and carry out surveillance in support of Israel.

The Pentagon was also sending the USS Dwight Eisenhower aircraft carrier and accompanying warships to the Mediterranean on a planned deployment, Mr Kirby said at a White House press briefing.

“We’re sending a loud and clear message the United States is ready to take action should any actor hostile to Israel consider trying to escalate or widen this war,” he added.

Israel shelled Lebanon for the fourth successive day on Wednesday, exchanging fire with Hizbullah. The IDF says the country is at war on three fronts, since shells from Syria have also landed in Israel.

– Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023