Israel said on Thursday there would be no humanitarian exceptions to its siege of the Gaza Strip until all its hostages were freed, after the Red Cross pleaded for fuel to be allowed in to prevent overwhelmed hospitals from "turning into morgues".
JERUSALEM/GAZA/ASHKELON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of the Gaza Strip until all its hostages were freed, after the Red Cross pleaded for fuel to be allowed in to prevent overwhelmed hospitals from "turning into morgues".
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip in retribution for the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, when hundreds of gunmen poured across the barrier fence and rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday.
Israel has responded so far by putting the enclave, home to 2.3 million people, under total siege and launching by far the most powerful bombing campaign in the 75-year history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, destroying whole neighbourhoods.
"The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians," Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement on Thursday.
No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home.
He will also visit Jordan, and officials in the Palestinian Authority - rivals to the Hamas Islamists that control Gaza - said Blinken would meet their president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday.
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