As strikes devastate Gaza, Israel forms unity gov’t to oversee war

JERUSALEM (AP):

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a leading opposition figure on Wednesday created a war-time Cabinet overseeing the fight to avenge a stunning weekend attack by Hamas militants. In the sealed-off Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas, Palestinian suffering mounted as Israeli bombardment demolished neighborhoods and the territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel.

The new war-time Cabinet establishes a degree of unity after years of bitterly divisive politics, and as the Israeli military appears increasingly likely to launch a ground offensive into Gaza.

The Cabinet, which will focus only on issues of war, will consist of Netanyahu, Benny Gantz – a senior opposition figure and former defense minister – and current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a statement released by Gantz said.

The government is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas after its militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and massacred hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival. Militants in Gaza are holding an estimated 150 people taken hostage from Israel – soldiers, men, women, children and older adults.

Still, Israel’s political divisions remain. The country’s chief opposition leader, Yair Lapid, was invited to join to new Cabinet but did not immediately respond to the offer. It appeared that the rest of Netanyahu’s existing government partners, a collection of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, would remain in place to handle non-war issues.

A ground offensive in the tiny, coastal Gaza Strip, densely populated with 2.3 million people, is likely to dramatically hike casualties in a war that has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides.

So far, Israel has unleashed an increasingly destructive bombardment in Gaza that has flattened entire city blocks and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris. Militants in Gaza continued to fire rockets at Israel on Wednesday, including a heavy barrage at the southern town of Ashkelon.