The new assault on Gaza is the first since Israel declared it a “hostile territory” last week. Israel has already announced it plans to cut off much of Gaza’s electricity and fuel supplies. Israeli banks have also severed ties with Palestinian banks in Gaza.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum: “It is clear that there is an Israeli-American policy that is being implemented against the Palestinian people using the siege, the strangulation, by drying the water resources, stopping medicine and goods from entering and being delivered to our Palestinian people. This comes in preparation to the fall conference which is coming up, in order to force the Palestinian people into submission by starving them so they will give in to the American dictation and to agree to stolen resolutions which will erase Palestinian rights.”