GAZA: Israel carried out deadly strikes in Gaza, first responders in the war-battered Palestinian territory said on Sunday.
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.
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."
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 Palestinian groups. The G7 group of developed economies said that it opposed a "full-scale military operation" there, fearing "catastrophic consequences" for Rafah's civilians.
Israel has faced growing global opposition to the war, which has turned vast areas of Gaza into rubble while a siege has left residents without enough water, food, medicines and other vital supplies. The population "faces famine, malnutrition, and infectious disease outbreaks", the International Rescue Committee charity warned this week.
The attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,097 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also come under pressure within Israel, including to reach a deal for the release of captives still held in Gaza. Israel estimates 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead. Families of the captives were among thousands attending an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. — AFP
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