Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 22, mostly children, as US advances aid package
Rafah (Gaza Strip), Apr 21: Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to its close ally.
Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US.
The House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.
The second strike killed 17 children and two women, all from the same extended family, according to hospital records. First responders were still searching the rubble. An airstrike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.
Mohammed al-Beheiri said his daughter, Rasha, and her six children, ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years, were among those killed overnight and into Sunday. Her husband's second wife and their three children were still under the rubble, al-Beheiri said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, devastated Gaza's two largest cities and left a swath of destruction across the territory. Around 80% of the population have fled their homes to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, which experts say is on the brink of famine.
The conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the US against Iran. Israel and Iran traded fire directly earlier this month, raising fears of all-out war between the longtime foes.
Tensions have also spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two killed were 18 and 19 years old, from the same family. No Israeli forces were wounded, the army said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service meanwhile said it has recovered a total of 14 bodies from an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp in the West Bank that began late Thursday. Those killed include three from the Islamic Jihad group and a 15-year-old boy. The military says it killed 10 militants in the camp and arrested eight suspects. Nine Israeli soldiers and officers were wounded.
In a separate incident in the West Bank, an Israeli man was wounded in an explosion Sunday, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. A video circulating online shows a man approaching a Palestinian flag that had been planted in a field. When he kicks it, it appears to trigger an explosive device.
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 Health Ministry. Most have been killed during Israeli military arrest raids, which often trigger gunbattles, or in violent protests.
The war in Gaza was sparked by an unprecedented Oct 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas group killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says Hamas group are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for new elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a deal with Hamas to release the hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned.
The war has killed at least 34,097 Palestinians and wounded another 76,980, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry says at least two-thirds have been children and women. It also says the real toll is likely higher as many bodies are stuck beneath the rubble left by airstrikes or are in areas that are unreachable for medics.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group fight in dense, residential neighbourhoods, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. The military says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
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Lok Sabha adjourned till 12 noon after obituary tributes
New Delhi (PTI): The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon on Monday after paying tributes to departed members of the House, including two MPs who won the parliamentary elections this year.
As soon as the House met on the first day of the Winter Session, Speaker Om Birla mentioned the deaths of Vasantrao Balwantrao Chavan, who was elected to the House from Nanded constituency in Maharashtra and Sk Nurul Islam, who was elected from the Basirhat seat in West Bengal.
Birla also mentioned the deaths of three former members -- M. M. Lawrence (Kerala), M Parvathi (Andhra Pradesh) and Harischandra Devram Chavan (Maharashtra) -- and paid respects to them.
After the House remained silent for some time as a mark of respect to the departed leaders, the Speaker adjourned the House till 12 noon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, DMK leader T R Baalu, and Congress' Gaurav Gogoi were among those present in the Lower House.
Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan, son of deceased MP Vasantrao Balwantrao Chavan, got elected as MP from Nanded in the just concluded by-elections.
