Gaza was plunged into darkness, isolation and violence on Saturday night, its communications with the outside world almost entirely cut, as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced his country was entering “the second stage” of what was likely to be a long and difficult war against Hamas.
Netanyahu’s comments came hard on the heels of those by Gallant and IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi who had both signalled the war was entering a new phase. Some civilians used their bare hands to pull injured people from the rubble, loading them into cars or donkey carts to rush them to the hospital.
It said: “During a night of intense bombardment and ground incursions in Gaza, with reports of hostilities still continuing, health workers, patients and civilians have been subject to a total communication and electrical blackout. “There are more wounded every hour. But ambulances cannot reach them in the communications blackout. Morgues are full. More than half of the dead are women and children.”
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said about 7,700 people had been killed inside Gaza since 7 October after Hamas’s massacre of about 1,400 Israelis living along the Gaza border. The figures claimed by Hamas cannot be verified.