ISRAELI STRIKES ON the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 18 people, including 14 children, health officials said today.
Israel has been carrying out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere since the Israeli invasion of the territory.
Israel has also vowed to expand its ground offensive into the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US and other allies.
The first overnight strike killed a man, his wife and their three-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 eight children and two women, all from the same family, according to hospital records. An air strike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.
A mass grave has been discovered by Palestinian rescue workers at the site of the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza.
Qatari news agency Al Jazeera reported that civil defence workers and paramedics found 180 bodies that had been buried in the hospital courtyard by Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital on 7 April, leaving destruction and bodies behind them.
Among the dead were elderly women, children and young men.
Rescuers told Al Jazeera that some bodies were found plastic bags bearing Hebrew writing and others had their hands tied behind their backs.
Family members were seen crying as they searched for loved ones among the dead.
Earlier this week, another mass grave was discovered at Shifa hospital in Gaza city after two weeks of an Israeli siege.
The Israeli siege, bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and wounded another 76,901, according to local health officials.
The fighting and bombardment have devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swathe of destruction across the territory.
Around 80% of the population have fled their homes to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, where famine remains a real danger.
The healthcare system has all but collapsed as only 10 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functional.
Tensions have also surged between Palestinians and colonising settlers and soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military said attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early this morning.
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 had recovered a total of 14 bodies after an Israeli raid on the Nur Shams urban refugee camp in the West Bank that began late on Thursday.
🚑Up to now, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have evacuated 14 martyrs from the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarem to the hospital.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) April 20, 2024
Those killed include three militants from the Islamic Jihad group and a 15-year-old boy.
The military said it killed 10 militants in the camp and arrested eight suspects. Nine Israeli soldiers and officers were wounded.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that one of the paramedics they had trained was shot in the leg and that another paramedic’s son died after he was shot in the head.
“An MSF-trained paramedical volunteer was shot in the leg while on duty. Due to the hostilities, it took him 7 hours to reach the hospital,” Itta Helland-Hansen, an MSF coordinator.
“One of our staff members administered CPR to a 16-year-old child after he was shot in the head, but was unable to save him. His father, also a paramedic trained by MSF, learned the news of his son’s killing while working in the ambulance.”
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 during violent protests.
The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said that he is “gravely concerned by heightened violence across the occupied West Bank” in a post on X.
“We must avoid further escalation – attacks on civilians must stop, including settler violence,” he said, adding that stability in the West Bank was vital in keeping the prospect of peace alive.
Gravely concerned by heightened violence across o. West Bank. We must avoid further escalation - attacks on civilians must stop, incl. settler violence. As the war in Gaza continues & regional instability mounts, West Bank stability is essential to keep alive prospects for peace.
— Tor Wennesland (@TWennesland) April 21, 2024
Yesterday, the US House of Representatives approved a long-delayed $13 billion in military assistance to Israel.
“This support, which violates international law, is a licence and a green light for the Zionist extremist government (Israel) to continue the brutal aggression against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
“We consider this step a confirmation of the official American complicity and partnership in the war of extermination waged by the fascist occupation army against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
Washington is already Israel’s largest military supplier.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “much appreciated aid bill” showed strong support for Israel and “defends Western civilisation”.
The US bill said that more than $9 billion will also be earmarked to address “the dire need for humanitarian assistance for Gaza as well as other vulnerable populations around the world”.
Postal staff in An Post have called for a boycott in their sector, having passed a motion unanimously to refuse to handle Israeli mail.
Sean McDonagh, General Secretary of Communications Workers Union (CWU) told Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin on RTÉ that he accepts it would be a serious offence but says it’s out of frustration at the ongoing Gaza conflict.
The motion came from the union’s branch in the Dublin Mail Centre, which McDonagh said is the biggest sorting centre in An Post.
“It’s a reaction to this conflict and the genocide in Gaza. What they want us to do, and the union has agreed to do it, is to support people who in their own conscience might make a decision not to handle Israeli mail.
“They’ve also said that in the context of that happening they wouldn’t want those people to be subject to disciplinary action.”
He said the CWU has a proud record of providing humanitarian aid. They also take pride in their work and “keeping people connected” through their work.
But given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the union “could not in all conscience oppose” the motion.
He admitted that the measure is “unchartered waters” for the union and that the union has to understand how it will work.
This includes understanding “what kind of mail product will we not handle”, whether that is personal or commercial mail.
“We have to talk to An Post management because it is a very serious offence to delay mail, it could lead to not alone very serious disciplinary proceedings but legal proceedings.”
McDonagh said the union will also speak to union colleagues in Ireland and internationally for assistance.
He added that it came from “utter and sheer frustration” from members who “cannot comprehend” that the Irish government has not been able to communicate with Israel to ensure water and electricity is provided to people in Gaza.
Includes reporting from Eoghan Dalton, Press Association and AFP
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