Gazans Scramble For Essentials As Invasion Looms, Biden's 'Big Mistake' Warning Against Israeli Occupation: Top Points

The Israel-Hamas war has entered day ten with the Israeli military intensifying its attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza. The conflict has, however, made it difficult for Gazans to survive in the region.

Israel-Hamas War: A crisis has befallen the people of Gaza who are struggling to survive on whatever resources are left to them amid fears of Israel's invasion of the territory as the war with Hamas continues to escalate. Israel has asked north Gazans to evacuate the region so that Israeli forces can operate against the Hamas militant group as the war enters day 10. Israel has cut the food, water, and electricity supply to Gaza making it difficult for nearly 2.3 million people there to survive. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has said that Israel occupying Gaza would be "a big mistake".

Over 3,000 have died and thousands were injured in the conflict that began after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7. It was a sudden development no one expected and since then, world leaders have been trying to carve out a possible plan to control the situation, which doesn't seem practical at the moment. Here are the top developments on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Top Points On Israel-Hamas War

• At least 1,300 people have died and 3,227 others have been injured in Israel after Hamas' attack, say Israeli authorities. In Gaza, at least 2,329 people have been killed in retaliatory strikes from Israel with another 9,714 more injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, reported ABC News.

 

• The Associated Press stated that people are struggling to flee from northern Gaza and also grappling with a growing water crisis after Israel stopped the flow of resources to the Gaza Strip. The UN's Palestinian refugee agency said that Gaza "is being strangled" and the number of people seeking shelter at their schools and facilities in the south of the territory is overwhelming. "If we look at the issue of water — we all know water is life — Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life," said Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA at a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday, as quoted by the AP.

 

• Apart from this, hospitals in Gaza are expected to run out of fuel for emergency generations within two days, according to the UN. Lazzarini said that he believed there would be no food or medicine in Gaza soon.

 

• According to the UN, at least 1 million people were forced to flee their homes in Gaza last week while at least 4,00,000 displaced people are crammed into UNRWA schools and buildings. Media reports say the conditions of these shelters are appalling. Lazzarini said that most of the agency’s 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip are now displaced or out of their homes.

 

• US President Joe Biden has said that it would be a big mistake if Israel goes on to occupy Gaza. He said that Hamas must be eliminated but there needs to be a way for the "Palestinian" state. "I think it’d be a big mistake. Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that ... It would be a mistake to ... for Israel to occupy ... Gaza again. We ... but going in but taking out the extremists the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south. Is a necessary requirement," he said, the Guardian reported.

 

• The US President said that he believed that Hamas must be eliminated entirely but added, "there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state." On the question of Israel baking the two-state solution, he said, "Not now. Not now. Not now, but – but I think Israel understands that a significant portion of Palestinian people do not share the views of Hamas and Hezbollah."

 

• The Israeli military on Sunday had put an evacuation corridor in place saying it would not target the area for several hours and asked urged Palestinians to leave the north en masse.

 

• Meanwhile, ABC News reported citing a source that an agreement has been reached to open the border crossing out of Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Monday for the entry of foreigners and dual nationals into Egypt and for the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

 

• Notably, the Rafah border crossing is the only crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The crossing is likely to be opened for a few hours on Monday and then closed again in the late afternoon, the report further added. 

 

• UN Relief and Works Agency Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that 14 staff members from the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees have been killed in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. He said that most of the UNRWA's 13,000 staff members in the Gaza Strip have now been displaced or are "out of their homes."

 

• Israeli Defence Forces on early Monday attacked "military infrastructure" that belongs to "the terrorist organisation Hezbollah" in Lebanon, it said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "IDF forces attacked the military infrastructure of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon a short time ago; this was in response to the shooting that was carried out yesterday at Israeli territory," the post read.