No Food, Fuel, Electricity or Drinking Water in Gaza as Israel Declares ‘Total Siege’

Israel’s defense minister on Monday declared a “complete siege” on Gaza, as Hamas rockets continued to fall on Israeli cities.

“There is no electricity, there is no food, there is no water, there is no fuel,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced at a briefing. 

Power and fuel supplies to the Hamas-ruled territory had been cut off since Saturday, Israel’s energy minister, Israel Katz, told reporters. Now, he said, drinking water to Gaza’s 2.1 million people would be stopped as well. 

“I instructed that the water supply from Israel to Gaza be cut off immediately,” Katz said. 

More than 500 people have been killed in continued Israeli bombing of Gaza following a Hamas attack on Israel that left 800 people dead. 

“The humanitarian conditions in Gaza are dangerous and deteriorating in all aspects of life, and the bombing exacerbates the suffering of civilians,” Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Avigdor Liberman, a former defense minister, called for an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. 

“Eliminating Hamas is what is required in the situation that has been created; unfortunately that requires entry on the ground to Gaza City,” Liberman said in a statement. “We have to clean out the stables.”

“I don’t see any way the Israeli government will be able to avoid some kind of ground operation,” Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council, told the Financial Times. “It will have to be a combination of ground, air and sea.”