“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as he ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip in a statement on Monday, October 9, the third day of the Israel-Hamas war.
Following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which left over a thousand dead, Israel mobilized some 300,000 reservists and concentrated forces in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip. After three days of evacuating Israeli residents from these southern areas, tracking down Hamas commandoes and accelerating its bombing of targets within Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces have moved to besiege Gaza, reinforcing an existing blockade in place since 2007.