Gaza in BLACKOUT as fuel runs out before invasion to raze ‘Nest of Terror’

GAZA’S only power plant has run out of fuel as the enclave sits on the brink of an all-out invasion from Israel.

Israel halted fuel, food and medicine entering the blockaded territory after Hamas terrorists stormed across the border and killed hundreds in a bloody massacre.

And Gaza – which has a population of 2.3 million – plunged into darkness on Wednesday after its sole power plant dried up, leaving only generators to power the territory.

The head of the Gaza Energy Authority said the station stopped running at 2pm local time (midday UK time) on Wednesday.

Hours before, energy supplies at hospitals had already started to rapidly dwindle – leaving doctors unable to use surgical equipment.

Health officials say the lives of hundreds of children are now at risk as electricity supplies diminish.

The Palestinian Energy Authority said it would be “impossible to continue providing all basic life services”.

It added: “This catastrophic situation creates a humanitarian crisis for all residents of the Gaza Strip.”

The blackout comes after Israel vowed to raze Gaza to the ground as it launched more than 200 airstrikes overnight.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since Hamas terrorists staged a surprise assault on Israel on Saturday, including at least 17 Brits killed or missing.

Israel has now promised an even more punishing escalation as dozens of fighter jets hammered neighbourhood after neighbourhood overnight.

Forces unleashed 250 airstrikes in just one hour early on Wednesday, Fox News reported.

It comes as…

The IDF said the area hit is a “Nest of Terror” used by Hamas militants to launch attacks against Israel.

Dozens of buildings were reduced to rubble – leaving unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris as residents scrambled to find safety.

Meanwhile, Israel has called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists.

Israel’s military has insisted hundreds of troops massed near the Gaza border are “ready to execute the mission we have been given”.

An Israeli defence official told Channel 13 News that Gaza would become a “tent city” after Hamas fighters broke through the border fence and stormed into the country’s south at the weekend.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz have now agreed to form an emergency government – and a war cabinet will be set up.

It comes after hundreds of Israelis were gunned down in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.

They dragged an estimated 150 soldiers, men, women, children and the elderly into captivity in Gaza.

Hamas chillingly warned on Monday they would kill a hostage for each new Israeli attack on Gaza and threatened to broadcast the footage.

King Charles today said he is “appalled” by and condemns the “barbaric acts” of terrorism in Israel, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.

As the battle rages into its fifth day, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 1,055 people have been killed and 5,000 injured in the crowded coastal enclave.

In Israel, the death toll reached 1,200 and more than 2,700 people were wounded.

It’s now feared it could trigger war in the whole of the Middle East as fresh exchanges of fire over Israel’s northern borders with militants in Lebanon and Syria erupted on Tuesday.

In one town, Hamas terrorists are claimed to have massacred at least 40 babies and kids in a sickening rampage.

Israeli soldiers discovered scenes of unimaginable horror in Kfar Aza – a village close to the Gaza border that was captured for two days by the Hamas militants.

The Israeli army took back control of the besieged village on Tuesday and its soldiers were faced with the gut-wrenching task of recovering the bodies of dozens of victims.

Armed with guns, grenades and knives, Hamas terrorists beheaded men, women, children and babies in their beds early on Saturday morning after storming over the border.

In a new tactic, Israel is warning civilians to evacuate neighborhood after neighborhood, and then inflicting devastation, in what could be a prelude to a ground offensive.

On Tuesday, the military told residents of the nearby al-Daraj neighborhood to evacuate.

New explosions soon rocked it and other areas, continuing into the night.

Fighter jets returned multiple times to another neighborhood, al-Furqan, striking 450 targets in 24 hours, the Israeli military said.

It comes as local media reports suggest that Israel was in fact warned about the Hamas attack by Egyptian intelligence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied having any prior knowledge of the attack, which has been dubbed a “complete intelligence failure”.