Key Points
- Israel's defence minister has threatened its war cabinet will wipe Hamas 'off the face of the earth'.
- The sole power plant in Gaza - the only source of main electricity since Israel started its siege - has stopped working.
- Israel's death toll has reached 1,200 while 1,100 people have been killed in Gaza.
Israel's war cabinet has vowed to wipe Hamas "off the face of the earth" as Gaza's sole power plant shuts down, cutting off electricity and forcing its people to rely on backup fuel generators.
Israel formed an emergency unity government as its jets pounded Gaza and tanks massed around the densely populated blockaded enclave while Hamas militants said they were still fighting 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.
"We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday. "It will cease to exist."
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.
Israel's death toll rose to 1,200 with over 2,700 wounded, its military said, from Hamas militants' hours-long rampage which began on Saturday.
Israeli reprisal strikes on blockaded Gaza have killed 1,100 people and wounded 5,339, Gaza's Health Ministry said.
Gaza power plant shuts down after running out of fuel
Israel has put Gaza under "total siege" to stop food and fuel from reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid.
Hamas media said on Wednesday electricity went out after the only power station stopped working. The Gaza Strip's largest medical facility, Al-Shifa Hospital, said on Wednesday it only had enough fuel for backup generators for another four days.
On Wednesday, Israel's energy minister Israel Katz posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, confirming the power station had "collapsed". "We will continue to tighten the siege until the Hamas threat to Israel and the world is removed," he said.
Most of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip have no electricity and no water. On Thursday, the United Nations' humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement more than 338,000 people had been displaced from the Gaza Strip.
"Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues."
Hamas claimed on Wednesday it was still fighting inside Israel. Israel deployed tanks and armoured vehicles just north of Gaza where the clashes were reported, but had no immediate comment on the Hamas claim.
UN chief calls for essential supplies to be allowed into Gaza
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that crucial life-saving supplies, including fuel, food and water, must be allowed into Gaza.
"We need rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access now," he told reporters, thanking Egypt "for its constructive engagement to facilitate humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing and to make the El Arish airport available for critical assistance."
Washington said it was talking with Israel and Egypt about safe passage for civilians from Gaza, with food in short supply.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, an official in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, said the international community must intervene urgently to avert "a major humanitarian catastrophe".
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Joe Biden speaks again to Netanyahu, US eyes additional aid
US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Wednesday as the US administration pursued more aid for its ally and warned that the number of American deaths from the Hamas attack could rise.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the parameters for an additional funding request to Congress had not yet been finalised.
In the near term, Washington can continue to support both Israel and Ukraine as it continues to fight Russia, but "we're certainly running out of runway," he said at a news briefing.
Kirby said that the confirmed number of Americans who have died or are being held hostage could rise. "There is no justification for terrorism. No excuse," Biden said a day after he called the attack "an act of sheer evil".
Later in the day, alerts warning of incoming aircraft were issued across northern Israel but the Israeli military subsequently said these may have been a malfunction.
Hamas said it had targeted the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa with an R60 rocket. There were no immediate reports of casualties after sirens sounded in Haifa and nearby towns.
The significant escalation is the latest in a long-standing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Some countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group.
The UN though did not condemn Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation, due to insufficient support from member states to do so during a 2018 vote.
Israel has vowed swift punishment for the deadly incursion which began on Saturday.
The military said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets in a neighbourhood of Gaza City overnight that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its attacks.
Scores of Israelis and others from abroad were taken to Gaza as hostages. Both sides have said many women and children were among the dead and wounded.
Palestinian media said Israeli airstrikes had hit homes in Gaza City, the southern city of Khan Younis and in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Residents on social media said many buildings had collapsed, sometimes trapping as many as 50 people.
The United Nations said more than 250,000 Gazans had been made homeless, many huddling on streets or in schools.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had since Saturday destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and 10 health facilities and damaged 48 schools.
Flights to Tel Aviv suspended
British Airways has said it will suspend all of its flights to Tel Aviv after it diverted a flight from London back to Britain due to security concerns in Israel.
Separately, Virgin Atlantic said it will halt all flights to and from Tel Aviv for the next 72 hours, citing the safety of passengers and crew.
A spokesperson for Israel's airports authority said rockets were flying around Tel Aviv at the time of the British Airways diversion, but there was no immediate threat to the flight or to Ben Gurion Airport.
Governments and airlines have sought to add flights from Israel to evacuate their country's citizens, while Israeli airlines have sought to fly reservists back into Israel.
