Gaza Power Plant Shut Down; Over 1,055 Reported Dead From Israeli Airstrikes

The Israeli occupation forces targeted over 150 locations across Gaza on Wednesday, October 11, the fifth day of their assault inside the besieged Palestinian territory. According to the latest numbers from local media and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 1,055 Palestinians have been killed so far including over 250 children. Over 5,000 have also been injured.

Israel is also reportedly preparing for a ground offensive on Gaza and has amassed at least 100,000 soldiers and reserves on the border.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation inside Gaza is deteriorating fast. According to the Palestinian authorities, Israel refused to resume food and fuel supplies to Gaza for the second day after imposing a complete siege on the strip where over two million Palestinians live. Authorities in Gaza have reported the power plant has shut down completely, which will have multifold effects, and plunge the enclave into an even deeper humanitarian crisis.

Hussein al-Sheikh, the Secretary General of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), claimed that Israeli authorities also refused the entry of medical supplies to the war-affected people in Gaza.

“We call on international humanitarian institutions and the international community to intervene urgently to stop the [Israeli] aggression and allow the entry of relief materials and restore electricity and water, because the Gaza strip is facing a major humanitarian catastrophe,” al-Sheikh wrote on X.

The Israeli warplanes leveled the entire Palestinian neighborhood of al-Karama to the ground, destroying eight 12-story buildings. An unknown number of residents have been trapped under the debris without any medical help reaching them, Al-Jazeera reported.

Several other Palestinian localities have faced similar situations in the last four days of indiscriminate Israeli bombings of civilian areas.

The aftermath of destruction in Al-Rimal neighborhood in #Gaza City.

آثار الدمار في حي الرمال في مدينة #غزة.#Gaza_Under_Attack#Palestine pic.twitter.com/gHUSU8spOW

— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) October 11, 2023

At least 24 Palestinians have also been killed in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli occupation forces and over 150 others are injured. At least two Palestinians were also killed in Silwan in the occupied East Jerusalem by the occupation forces.

GAZA UPDATE: Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 140 Palestinian children in Gaza since October 7. @DCIPalestine has documented the killings of 74 Palestinian children so far. Among the dead: 10-year-old Yazan Shamlakh and his baby brothers. https://t.co/E2yIGbiYh5 pic.twitter.com/SYL4RMjNS8

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) October 10, 2023

The number of Israelis killed in attacks carried out by the Palestinians resistance has crossed 1,200, with over 3,000 others injured, the Israeli Occupation Forces claimed on Tuesday.

US responsible for Israeli crimes in Gaza

Following the launch of operation Al-Aqsa Flood by the Palestinian resistance force Hamas on Saturday, October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have issued open threats to destroy all of Gaza, in addition to imposing a complete ban on the supply of food, fuel and electricity inside the besieged territory.

"There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals & we act accordingly."

Netanyahu, Gallant, Katz are violating Geneva Conventions on collective punishment. This is a war crime, @IntlCrimCourt, please act!

No justice, no peace! pic.twitter.com/YR1Y72mMpV

— CODEPINK (@codepink) October 9, 2023

The Israeli siege has been criticized by different rights groups, including the UN which demanded the immediate opening of the border for the supply of humanitarian aid.

The indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and siege amounts to collective punishment categorized as war crimes under international law.

The Government Media Office in Gaza issued a statement on Wednesday, before the power plant shut down, and warned about the impacts of a electricity outage in the enclave. They added that hospitals were already struggling to keep up their work of treating those injured in the Israeli bombings.

“This catastrophic situation creates a humanitarian crisis for all residents of the Gaza strip, which is further exacerbated by the occupation’s continued aggression and destruction of entire residential neighborhoods with hundreds of tons of explosives, and the bombing of citizens’ homes over their heads, in what can be described as the dirtiest crime of collective punishment against defenseless civilians in modern history,” the statement reads.

The residents of Gaza are “hostage of killing tools used by the occupation” Israeli forces, it added.

In a separate statement, the Gaza administration rejected US President Joe Biden’s statement given on the night of Tuesday October 10, saying that it overshadowed the “criminality and terrorism of the Zionist government” and failed to address the “massacre committed by the Zionist forces against people in cold blood.”

Biden, during his second address to the nation on the war in Gaza, said that Hamas has unleashed terrorism against Israel and killed innocent Israeli civilians. He reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself and warned against any other country or group against joining the “Hamas offensive”, neglecting the mention the participation of various resistance groups in the operation.

Biden’s statement invited large-scale condemnation from Palestinians and progressive forces across the world, with some calling Biden responsible for the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Israel’s massacre in Gaza is being coordinated every step of the way with the U.S. government. Blood is on Biden’s hands! https://t.co/dJ1ZMU08qX

— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) October 10, 2023

Meanwhile, more evidence emerged of the Israeli army’s atrocities against Palestinians. According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli forces were sharing doctored videos of alleged Hamas operatives being killed during fighting. However, the video clearly shows none of the people killed were armed and that they were surrendering when Israeli forces executed them.

Deeply disturbing potential war crime: the IDF posted a doctored video alleging eliminating combatants. But their own footage shows said individuals unarmed, raising their hands up & kneeling down to surrender before IDF soldiers execute them from the back. pic.twitter.com/F7XDMRDENr

— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) October 11, 2023

“The crime scene has been doctored and assault rifles appear to have been added to the bodies” of the civilians who may have crossed the Gaza fence after it collapsed. Their killing is an act of “extrajudicial execution that constitutes a war crime,” Euro-Med said in a Twitter post.