Israel agrees to emergency unity government as war with Hamas intensifies

Israel announced the formation of an emergency government Wednesday as Israelis and Palestinians braced for a possible escalation of the war with Hamas and more harrowing details emerged of atrocities carried out by Palestinian assailants during their cross-border rampage.

The deal, which includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition politician Benny Gantz and other officials in a wartime Cabinet, came as the devastation of the Hamas incursion over the weekend was becoming clear: bodies in the streets, people shot dead at a bus stop, bullet holes in residential walls. Israel said the death toll in the attack had risen to 1,200, with an estimated 150 people believed to be held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Israel intensified its retaliation against Hamas by launching more missiles at Gaza, the sealed-off coastal territory controlled by the militant group, where fears of a humanitarian disaster were growing. New airstrikes hit rescue crews trying to reach people buried under the rubble of earlier attacks. Authorities in Gaza, which is under blockade by Israel and Egypt, said that its sole power plant had run out of fuel, forcing hospitals to rely on backup generators with limited fuel supplies.

The United States has pledged “urgent action” to support Israel’s response to what President Joe Biden on Tuesday called “pure, unadulterated evil.” The first shipment of new U.S. weapons arrived in Israel, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken was traveling there as flare-ups on Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria fueled fears of a broader conflict.

While the Israeli military assembles tanks and soldiers along the border with Gaza, it remains unclear whether it will launch a ground invasion. At least 1,055 Palestinians have been killed and at least 5,184 others have been injured in Gaza since Saturday, according to health officials there.

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Gazans say that Israel has hit structures that are normally safe, such as schools, hospitals and mosques. Israel has given broad warnings for people to leave certain neighborhoods or towns but has acknowledged that they are not as extensive or specific as they have been in the past.

Blinken is set to arrive in Israel on Thursday, where he is expected to meet with senior Israeli officials to discuss military needs and hostage negotiations. The number of U.S. citizens killed during the attacks has risen to 20, and American citizens are among the hostages.

Israel said Tuesday that it had exchanged fire across the border with Syria after projectiles were fired from the other side, the first time it had done so since the start of the war with Hamas. Israeli forces also said they launched retaliatory strikes inside Lebanon on Wednesday, hitting targets belonging to the Hezbollah militant group, which is allied with Hamas, adding to concerns that the conflict could widen.

A New York Times analysis of Hamas propaganda and satellite images shows how the assailants were able to execute such a sophisticated operation Saturday. They appear to have destroyed communications towers close to the Gaza border key to Israel’s defense. Israel has said little about what appears to be a spectacular failure of its security and intelligence operations.