Water runs out at UN shelters across Gaza as Israeli ground offensive looms

Israel has cut off the flow of food, medicine, water and electricity to Gaza (Hatem Ali/AP)

Water has run out at UN shelters across Gaza as thousands of people packed into the courtyard of the besieged territory’s largest hospital as a refuge of last resort from a looming Israeli ground offensive.

Palestinian civilians across Gaza, already battered by years of conflict, were struggling for survival on Sunday in the face of an unprecedented Israeli operation against the territory following a Hamas militant attack on October 7 that killed 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians.