Early morning update

Hello MEE readers.

Israel has continued overnight air strikes on Gaza City, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government responds to a surprise military campaign by Hamas.

Israel's security cabinet announced that it would be halting electricity, fuel and the transfer of goods to the besieged enclave after it concluded a meeting on Saturday evening.

And air strikes by Israel have hit several residential buildings in Gaza on Sunday morning, including multiple high-rise towers.

The military operation by Hamas that was launched against Israel in the early morning of Saturday caught Israel by surprise.

Efraim Halevy, the former head of Israel's intelligence service Mossad, said in an interview with CNN that the attack was "beyond imagination" for Israel, and that "we didn't know they had this quantity of missiles, and we certainly didn't expect that they would be as effective as they were today."

So far, the Israeli and Palestinian death tolls currently stand at nearly 300 Israelis killed and at least 232 Palestinians killed, with more than a thousand injured on both sides.

Our live coverage will continue on throughout the morning. You can follow our blog for updates, and keep an eye on our social media platforms on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.