Israel pounds Gaza as West Bank violence surges

AFP :
Israel carried out deadly strikes in Gaza, first responders in the war-battered Palestinian territory said on Sunday (Apr 21), as violence flared in the occupied West Bank.
The latest bombardments came as lawmakers in Israel’s top ally, the United States, approved US$13 billion in new Israeli military aid even as global criticism mounts over the death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
However, fears of wider war breaking out in the Middle East have eased somewhat after Iran downplayed Israel’s reported retaliation over its unprecedented missile and drone attack on the country a week ago.
Attention has turned back towards the war 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 near the southernmost Gaza city of 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 war began, when Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 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.
The G7 group of developed economies said on Friday that it opposed a “full-scale military operation” there, fearing “catastrophic consequences” for Rafah’s civilians.