RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah in a single day killed 22 individuals, together with 18 children, well being officers mentioned Sunday, because the United States was on monitor to approve billions of {dollars} of further army help to Israel, its shut ally.
Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, the place greater than half of Gaza’s inhabitants of 2.3 million has sought refuge from preventing elsewhere. It has additionally vowed to broaden its floor offensive in opposition to the Hamas militant group to town on the border with Egypt regardless of requires restraint, together with from the U.S.
“In the coming days, we will increase the political and military pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to bring back our hostages and achieve victory. We will land more and painful blows on Hamas — soon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned in a press release. He didn’t give particulars.
The first Israeli strike in Rafah killed a person, his spouse and their 3-year-old little one, in accordance with the close by Kuwaiti Hospital, which obtained the our bodies. The lady was pregnant and the docs saved the newborn, the hospital mentioned. The second strike killed 17 children and two ladies from an prolonged household.
“These children were sleeping. What did they do? What was their fault?” requested one relative, Umm Kareem. Mohammed al-Beheiri mentioned that his daughter, Rasha, and her six children, the youngest 18 months previous, had been amongst these killed. A girl and three children had been nonetheless beneath the rubble.
The Israel-Hamas warfare has killed greater than 34,000 Palestinians, in accordance with native well being officers, not less than two-thirds of them children and girls. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swath of destruction. Around 80% of the territory’s inhabitants have fled to different elements of the besieged coastal enclave.
The $26 billion help bundle accredited by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday contains round $9 billion in humanitarian help for Gaza, which specialists say is on the point of famine. The U.S. Senate may go the bundle as quickly as Tuesday, and President Joe Biden has promised to signal it instantly.
The battle, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the U.S. in opposition to Iran and allied militant teams throughout the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fireplace straight this month, elevating fears of all-out warfare.
Tensions have additionally spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the army says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun close to the southern West Bank city of Hebron early Sunday. The Palestinian Health Ministry mentioned that the 2 killed had been 18 and 19, from the identical household. No Israeli forces had been wounded, the military mentioned.
Later, the army mentioned its forces shot lifeless a 43-year-old Palestinian lady after she tried to stab a soldier in the northern West Bank close to Beka’ot settlement.
The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service mentioned that it had recovered 14 our bodies from an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams city refugee camp in the West Bank that started late Thursday. Those killed embody three militants from the Islamic Jihad group and a 15-year-old boy. The army mentioned it killed 14 militants and arrested eight suspects. Ten Israeli troopers and one border police officer had been wounded.
In a separate incident in the West Bank, an Israeli man was wounded in an explosion on Sunday, the Magen David Adom rescue service mentioned. A video circulating on-line exhibits a person approaching a Palestinian flag planted in a discipline. When he kicks it, it seems to set off an explosive gadget.
At least 469 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troopers and settlers in the West Bank for the reason that begin of the Israel-Hamas warfare, in accordance with the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have been killed throughout Israeli army raids or in violent protests.
The warfare was sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and different militants killed round 1,200 individuals, mostly civilians, and kidnapped round 250 hostages. Israel says militants are nonetheless holding round 100 hostages and the stays of greater than 30 others.
Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to name for a brand new election to switch Netanyahu and a cope with Hamas to launch the hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to proceed the warfare till Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are returned.
The warfare has killed not less than 34,097 Palestinians and wounded one other 76,980, in accordance with the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians in its rely. It says the true toll is probably going greater as many our bodies are caught beneath the rubble or in areas that medics can’t attain.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties as a result of the militants combat in dense, residential neighborhoods. The army hardly ever feedback on particular person strikes, which regularly kill ladies and children. The army says it has killed greater than 13,000 Hamas fighters, with out offering proof.
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Samy Magdy reported from Cairo. Jack Jeffery contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
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Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
