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Israel conducts its biggest raid yet into Gaza, as fuel supplies run critically low
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Updated October 26, 2023 at 11:57 AM ET
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel carried out a "targeted raid" in northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the most extensive use of Israeli tanks in Gaza since its war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas began earlier this month. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said the incursion was made "in preparation for the next stages of war."
An IDF spokesperson said the raid involved a number of tanks and troops and "eliminated terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructure." The tanks have since exited Gaza, and there were no Israeli casualties, the IDF said.
Israel has increased the intensity of its attacks on the Hamas-run territory over the last few days, with hundreds of airstrikes each night, as Gaza's lack of fuel reaches a crisis point.
Sixty-two aid trucks have entered Gaza since last weekend, carrying much-needed food, water and medical supplies. But none has delivered fuel, which Israel has blocked over concerns it could be stolen and used by Hamas.
As a result, aid groups have escalated their warnings. UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides relief to Palestinians, says it could run out of fuel within a day.
"The situation is terrible and it gets worse by the hour — not even by the day — every hour, things get worse and worse for people in Gaza," Juliette Touma, an UNRWA spokesperson, told NPR.
Aid groups poised to assist with food, fuel shortages
The streets of Gaza are empty of cars. Many of its bakeries are shuttered; meat suppliers have no refrigeration. Doctors perform operations by flashlight.
Fuel is needed for U.N. vehicles to collect aid from the border and distribute it across Gaza, said the U.N.'s Touma. Fuel is also used to power hospitals, where doctors have warned that people will die if life-saving medical equipment is forced to go out of operation.
The lack of fuel has also disabled water pumps and restricted an already limited food supply in Gaza, the U.N. warns.
The World Health Organization has said it has trucks on standby across the border in Egypt with medical supplies: "WHO calls for immediate and uninterrupted access into and across Gaza, so that its ailing health system can be urgently revived."
Gaza's bakeries have shut down, including many of those that contract with the World Food Programme. (At least 10 bakeries have been struck and destroyed over the last week, according to the U.N.)
For those that remain intact and operational, long lines form daily, exposing people to airstrikes. The lack of electricity or fuel for generators has started to affect meat suppliers, too, who cannot refrigerate their products, according to the U.N.
In response to an UNRWA appeal for fuel on the social media site X, the Israel Defense Forces responded with a satellite image of what it described as fuel tanks located in Gaza.
"Ask Hamas if you can have some," the agency wrote.
The Hamas supply contains "enough for many days for hospitals and water pumps to run," Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an IDF spokesperson, said Thursday.
Death toll in Gaza rises
The reported death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 7,000, the territory's health officials say. In Israel, more than 1,400 people died after the Oct. 7 surprise Hamas attack, according to Israeli officials.
Asked Wednesday about the reported death toll in Gaza, President Biden responded that he had "no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed."
"The Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they're focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel," he said, adding that "it's against their interest when that doesn't happen."
The Palestinian agency that produces the death tolls, the Ministry of Health, is nominally operated by the Palestinian Authority, which provides funding and supplies and maintains close contact with hospitals in Gaza. Hamas governs Gaza and likely has close oversight over information Gaza health officials put out. The daily casualty counts are broadly considered to be accurate by humanitarian groups and have been cited by the State Department.
Gaza's borders are effectively closed, limiting the ability of aid groups and journalists to access the territory in order to independently verify the numbers.
Humanitarian groups warn that the death toll could dramatically increase if Israel follows through with its threats of a ground invasion.
More than 200 hostages remain in Hamas captivity
As the conflict nears the end of its third week, more than 200 hostages still remain in Hamas captivity after the Oct. 7 attack. U.S. officials and hostages' families have urged Israeli forces to delay the invasion in order to leave more time for negotiations over their release.
And hundreds of U.S. citizens are still stranded in Gaza. Massachusetts resident Abood Okal, along with his wife and their 1-year-old son, have been sharing a house in southern Rafah with dozens of others, he told NPR.
They sleep on the floor, without running water and only a couple hours a day of electricity from the home's solar panels. On Wednesday, they ran out of milk for his son, he said.
"We feel fortunate every morning that we wake up and we have lived for another day," Okal said. "But it's becoming increasingly harder and harder to find hope with everything else going around us."
More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes due to Israeli bombing and the expected ground invasion.
Israelis living near Gaza and Lebanon evacuate
Israeli officials say a quarter-million Israelis have now evacuated their homes due to the ongoing threat of rocket attacks. Those Israelis have been told it's unlikely they'll return home until sometime next year.
Israeli authorities say they've supervised the formal evacuation of 125,000 citizens in communities closest to the southern border with Gaza and the northern border with Lebanon.
Hamas is still firing rockets from Gaza, and the Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah is shooting sporadically from southern Lebanon.
In addition, another 125,000 Israelis have evacuated on their own from areas slightly further from the borders.
The quarter-million displaced Israelis are staying in "hotels, hostels, anyplace that can provide a meal and a bed," an IDF official said.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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