Israel bombards Rafah after US ‘green light’
Israel carried out deadly strikes in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, first responders in the Palestinian territory said yesterday, as violence flared in the occupied West Bank.
The latest bombardments came as lawmakers in Israel's top ally, the United States, approved $13 billion in new Israeli military aid even as global criticism mounts over the death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel welcomed the aid, while Hamas condemned it as a "green light" for continued Israeli "aggression".
Attention has turned back towards the offensive in Gaza, which Israel hit with several strikes overnight, according to the Palestinian territory's Civil Defence agency.
The bodies of 13 people, mostly children, were recovered after an Israeli strike hit the home of a family in Rafah, the agency said. Other people were believed to be under rubble.
A separate Israeli strike on a home in the Rafah area killed at least three people and wounded others, Civil Defence said. Resident Umm Hassan Kloub, 35, said her children screamed when they "woke up to a nightmare of an explosion".
"Every second we live in terror, even the sound of Israeli aircraft doesn't stop," she said. "We don't know whether we will live or die. This is not life."
Soon after the offensive began, Israel told Palestinians in northern Gaza to move to "safe zones" further south such as Rafah. Around 1.5 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people are now estimated to be sheltering in the city.
However, Israel has for two months threatened to invade the city in its mission to destroy Hamas.
At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed and 76,980 others injured in Israel's ongoing military offensive on the Gaza Strip since October 7, Gaza's health ministry said yesterday. Some 48 Palestinians were killed and 79 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Gaza's civil defence said yesterday health workers had uncovered at least 50 bodies of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at Nasser Hospital compound in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Violence has also flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a two-year surge in clashes has further escalated since the offensive began.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday that at least 14 people were killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank. A camp resident who declined to give his name said the West Bank had become a "second Gaza".
Separately, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said yesterday, bringing to at least 483 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to ministry data.
Yesterday, Israel said it will hold a "protest talk" with ambassadors from several United Nations Security Council members which voted for the "State of Palestine" to become a full UN member.
France, Japan and others backed the bid which the United States vetoed.
- 48 more Palestinians killed
- Bodies of 50 Palestinians exhumed at Nasser Hospital
- Death toll in enclave rises to 34,097
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