A Palestinian man wait for news of his daughter as rescue workers search for survivors under the rubble of a building hit in an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 21, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Abed / AFP)
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Israel carried out deadly strikes in Gaza, first responders in the war-battered Palestinian territory said on Sunday, as violence flared in the occupied West Bank.
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.
Israel hit Gaza 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."
Violence has also flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a two-year surge in clashes has further escalated since the war broke out.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Saturday that at least 14 people were killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
A camp resident who declined to give his name said the West Bank had become a "second Gaza".
"This is the first time in our history that we have seen such destruction, such devastation," the grey-bearded man told AFP.
Separately, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday, bringing to at least 483 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to ministry data.
