Israel-Palestine conflict: Electricity in Gaza goes out as sole power station stops working

Electricity in Gaza went out on Wednesday after the sole power station in the blockaded Palestinian enclave stopped working, Hamas media reported.

Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, forcing it to shut down after Israel cut off supplies, the Energy Ministry said according to AP.

Concern has mounted over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory, where Israel had levelled over 1,000 buildings and imposed a total siege, cutting off water, food and energy supplies for 2.3 million people.

Conflict continues

Israel kept pounding Hamas targets in Gaza, leaving entire city blocks in rubble Wednesday, as its soldiers swept battle-torn southern towns and found more victims five days after the Islamist militants' onslaught.

The army said a "staggering 1,200" bodies had been discovered, mostly of unarmed civilians, while Gaza officials reported more than 1,000 people killed in Israel's withering campaign of air and artillery strikes on the crowded Palestinian enclave.

Israel has massed forces, tanks and other heavy armour around Gaza in its retaliatory operation against what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labelled "an attack whose savagery ... we have not seen since the Holocaust".

US President Joe Biden has pledged to send more munitions and military hardware to its close ally Israel and expressed revulsion at the "sheer evil" of the slaughter of civilians in the unprecedented assault Hamas unleashed from Saturday.

Fears have been intense in Israel for the fate of at least 150 hostages -- mostly Israelis but also including foreign and dual nationals -- being held in Gaza by Hamas.

The militant group has claimed that four of the captives died in Israeli strikes and has threatened to kill other hostages if civilian targets are bombed without advance warning from Israel.

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