Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 13, mostly children, in southern city of Rafah

2024-04-21 08:18:01

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 13 people, nine of them children, officials said Sunday as the United States worked to approve a transfer of billions of dollars of additional military aid to its close ally.

Israel has carried out almost daily bombings on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have taken refuge from fighting elsewhere in the besieged territory. He has also promised to take his ground offensive to the city bordering Egypt despite international requests for restraint, also from the United States.

The US House of Representatives on Saturday approved a $26 billion package that includes some $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

The first attack in Rafah killed a man, his wife and their three-year-old son, according to the nearby Kuwait Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant and doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.

The second attack killed eight children and two women, all from the same family, according to hospital reports. Nine people, including six children, were killed in a bombing raid on Rafah the night before.

The war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left widespread destruction across the territory. Around 80% of the population has fled their homes to other parts of the coastal enclave, which experts say is on the brink of famine.

The conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional clashes pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and allied militias across the Middle East. Israel and Iran openly attacked each other this month, raising fears of a direct war between the two old rivals.

Tensions have also soared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Israeli army said its troops had “neutralized” on Sunday morning two Palestinians who attacked a security checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron. It was initially unclear whether they had died. There were no Israeli troops injured.

At least 469 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Most have died in Israeli raids to make arrests, which often spark fighting, or in violent protests.

The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants from Hamas and other groups killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped about 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding about 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others who have already died.

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for new elections and replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in addition to demanding an agreement with Hamas to free the hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are recovered.

At least 34,049 Palestinians have been killed and another 76,901 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count, but at least two-thirds were women and children. He also notes that the true figure is likely higher, given that many bodies were trapped under debris left by the airstrikes or are in places inaccessible to doctors.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in dense, residential neighborhoods, but the military rarely comments on specific attacks, which often kill women and children. The army claims to have killed more than 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.

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