The deadly strikes come as the U.S. Congress approved sending more aid to Israel.
Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 18 people, including 14 children, health officials said Sunday. Meanwhile, the United States 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 U.S.
The House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that he believed the Senate would take up the legislation this week. It still needs senators’ approval and President Biden’s signature.
« We have to be ready to be prepared for our national security interests, not only in Ukraine and Russia, also in terms of military assistance to Israel, but with additional humanitarian aid for the Palestinians who are in such great challenges, » Warner said Sunday.
The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. Among the dead was a pregnant woman in her 27th week, according to CBS News’ team on the ground. Doctors were able to keep her baby alive as of Sunday morning.
The second strike killed 13 children and two women, all from the same family, according to hospital records. An airstrike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.
For over two months, Israel has warned it could send troops into Rafah. The Group of 7, or G7, countries that include the U.S., Japan and the United Kingdom and whose foreign ministers met last week, warned that a full-scale operation there would have catastrophic consequences.
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.
