Israel has formed an emergency war cabinet and unity government as it tightens its siege of the Gaza Strip in advance 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.
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.
[ Israel forms emergency unity government as strikes continue to hit GazaOpens in new window ]
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
[ ‘Nothing is normal any more’: War with Hamas reshapes life in IsraelOpens in new window ]
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.
In the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said targeting civilian infrastructure in Gaza was unacceptable, just as it was unacceptable for Russia to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Solidarity with Israel from other parts of the world would “evaporate very quickly” if its response in Gaza and elsewhere was disproportionate and there must be “restraint”, he said.
The Fine Gael leader told the Dáil on Wednesday that Irish and EU aid would continue to Palestine and that he would not support its suspension “provided the money goes to the Palestinian people and not to Hamas”.
About 700 people attended a vigil, entitled Stand with Palestine, on Dublin’s O’Connell Street on Wednesday night. It was one of a number of similar demonstrations held throughout the State protesting against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza following the deadly assault by Hamas last weekend. Those in attendance briefly stopped traffic on O’Connell bridge.
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. – Copyright the Financial Times Limited 2023
