Oct. 11 (UPI) — The State Department said on Wednesday that the number of U.S. citizens killed in the current fighting in Israel and Gaza has reached 22.
The new figure comes as President Joe Biden talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, the fourth time since Israel’s war with Hamas started.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected,” a State Department spokesperson said. The day before, Biden put the American death toll at 14.
The White House said Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took part in the conversation with Netanyahu.
“There is no justification for terrorism, no excuse,” Biden said. “And the type of terrorism that was exhibited here was just beyond the pale. My commitment to Israel’s security and the safety of Jewish people is unshakable.”
The lone power plant in the Gaza Strip shut down on Wednesday after it ran out of fuel, as Israel followed through with its threat to no longer send supply to the facility as fighting between the country and Hamas militants continued to rage on.
The closure of the plant, which provided power to some 2 million inhabitants on the strip, is coming before an expected ground assault by the Israel Defense Forces. It marked another escalation after Hamas launched a surprise attack.
The death toll of Palestinians and Israelis continued to rise as fighting raged on since Saturday, officials said Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces said that more than 1,200 people have died since Saturday with another 2,900 others injured.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 1,055 Palestinians have been killed and 5,184 wounded.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society charged that one of its ambulances was targeted east of the Gaza Strip, killing Hatem Awad and blamed the attack on Israel, according to the PRCS’s message on X, formerly Twitter.
The United Nations Relief and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said nine of its staffers have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since Saturday.
“The protection of civilians is paramount, including in times of conflict,” the agency said in a message on X. “They should be protected in accordance with the laws of war.”
Nearly 264,000 people, representing almost 12% of the population of Gaza, are believed to have fled their homes, the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office said early Wednesday, as Israel continued to bombard the Palestinian enclave in its war on Hamas.
Israel has been unleashing air strikes and munitions on Gaza since Hamas launched a surprise deadly assault on the Middle Eastern country.
Israel has said it is at war with the militant group that effectively controls Gaza, a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast and within Israel’s borders
As the war enters its fifth day, the IDF said its jets struck more than 80 targets overnight in Beit Hanoun, a city in northwestern Gaza, destroying two bank branches that the Israeli Air Force said Hamas used to fund terrorism, an underground tunnel and two Hamas operational centers.
The IAF said it also hit two Hamas terror compounds, one of which it alleged was the headquarters of the militant group’s northern brigade. The warplanes also hit Islamic Jihad weapons targets.
The destruction and sheer scope of violence in Gaza has forced hundreds of thousands to leave their home to seek refuge elsewhere, many of them in hospital compounds and U.N.-run schools.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said early Wednesday it estimates that 263,934 of Gaza’s 2.2 million population have fled their home in Gaza — and that it expects that number to rise.
The number is also an increase of nearly 80,000 people displaced in the past 24 hours — a timeframe that the U.N. agency said was characterized by “an escalation in Israeli aerial and ground bombardments through the Gaza Strip.”
Air strikes targeted telecommunication installations, destroying two of Gaza’s three main lines of mobile communications, resulting in disruptions of mobile and Internet services.
Several residential buildings in heavily populated areas were also struck, resulting in casualties, including the elderly, women and children, it said.
Among the displaced Palestinians are more than 175,486 who have sought shelter in U.N. Relief and Works Agency schools.
Medecins Sans Frontieres on Tuesday warned that hospitals in Gaza were “overwhelmed” by the number of injured patients, exacerbated by Israel’s decision to shut off electricity and water and damage to infrastructure from bombardment, including to communications lines.
“The intensity of the violence and bombardment is shocking, as is the death toll,” it said in a statement. “The declaration of war must not, under any circumstances, lead to collective punishment of the population of Gaza.”
One hospital MSF supports was damaged in an airstrike and an ambulance transporting the wounded was destroyed in front of the hospital, it said, while demanding that Israel respect medical facilities.
“This is not something that should have to be negotiated,” it said.
