JERUSALEM/GAZA/WASHINGTON: Israel formed an emergency unity government on Wednesday as its jets pounded Gaza and tanks massed around the densely populated Palestinian enclave while Hamas said they were still fighting on Israeli territory following their shock weekend incursion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to form a war cabinet with former defence minister and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz and focus entirely on the conflict, a joint statement from Gantz’s National Unity party said.
Israel’s death toll rose to 1,200 with over 2,700 wounded, its military said, from Hamas hours-long rampage after breaching the fence enclosing Gaza on Saturday.
US President Joe Biden has issued a warning seemingly aimed at Hamas’ Iranian supporters not to exploit the Gaza conflagration to start a wider Middle East war.
Israeli reprisal strikes on blockaded Gaza have killed 1,100 people and wounded 5,339, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. Some 535 residential buildings had been destroyed leaving around 250,000 homeless, Hamas officials said. Most of the displaced were in UN-designated shelters, others huddling in shattered streets.
The group’s armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said it was still fighting inside Israel on Wednesday. Israel deployed tanks and armoured vehicles just north of Gaza where the clashes were reported, but had no immediate comment on the Hamas claim.
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