Israeli airstrike in Gaza's south kills at least 9 Palestinians

A Palestinian youth mourns his relative killed in the Israeli bombardment.

By Mohammad Jahjouh and Samy Magdy

April 20, 2024 Updated 2 PM PT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip —

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Rafah killed at least nine people, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive on the Gaza Strip. Six of those killed were children.

Israel’s war against the Islamic militant group Hamas has led to a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East, notably between Israel and Iran in recent weeks. Now attention is returning to Rafah, the southern city where more than half of Gaza’s population of about 2.3 million, most of them displaced by fighting elsewhere, are seeking refuge.

The strike late Friday hit Rafah’s western Tel Sultan neighborhood, according to Gaza’s civil defense. At al-Najjar hospital, site of the main morgue, relatives sobbed and hugged the white-shrouded bodies of children.

“Hamza, my beloved. Your hair looks so pretty,” a mourning grandmother said.

The fatalities included Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan; his wife, Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah; and their three children, according to his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum. Barhoum lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and their 5-year-old daughter, Alaa.

“This is a world devoid of all human values and morals,” Barhoum told the Associated Press, crying as he gently rocked Alaa’s body. “They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. The only martyrs were women and children.”

Israel has insisted for months that it plans a ground offensive in Rafah, where it says many Hamas militants are holed up, despite calls for restraint from the international community, including Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States.

Some Palestinians left an area of Rafah near the border with Egypt on Saturday after receiving an evacuation alert from the Israeli army.

“Guys, they will strike at 3:40. It is happening. What time is it now?” one said. Minutes later, there was a strike. It was not immediately known if there were casualties.

Also Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the urban refugee camp of Bureji in central Gaza, killing at least one man and injuring two, according to authorities at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, where an AP journalist saw the casualties.

The war was sparked by an Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups that left about 1,200 people dead, the vast majority civilians, and saw about 250 kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Israel says about 130 hostages remain in Gaza, although more than 30 have died.

Frustration continues to grow among many in Israel. Anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv again called for new elections and a deal to free the hostages.

The Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 34,049, with 76,901 wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that the bodies of 37 people killed by Israeli strikes were taken to hospitals over the previous 24 hours. The Hamas-run health authorities do not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their count but say at least two-thirds are children and women.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the militant group embeds in the population.

The war has sent regional tensions spiraling, provoking fears that violence between Israel and its archenemy Iran might escalate into full-blown war.

On Friday, both countries played down an apparent Israeli airstrike near a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran, indicating that they were pulling back from what could have become all-out conflict. Over the last several weeks, an alleged Israeli strike killed two Iranian generals at a consulate in Syria; Iran responded with an unprecedented missile barrage on Israel.

Israel continues to face off with Iran’s proxies in the region. It frequently trades rocket and drone attacks with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group across the border in Lebanon. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched strikes against merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in what they call a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Tensions also are high in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli army raid in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp that killed at least three militants and a 15-year-old boy on Friday continued into Saturday. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed the deaths of three members.

The Israeli army said its forces killed 10 militants in the camp and surrounding areas, while eight Palestinian suspects were arrested. Nine Israeli officers and soldiers were wounded, it said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said medical teams were informed about several Palestinians killed and injured in Nur Shams, but Israeli forces were preventing health workers from reaching them. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society asserted that Israeli forces “threw a wounded detainee on the roadside” near the camp, and he was taken to a hospital. An AP journalist at the camp said intermittent gunfire and explosions rang out Saturday afternoon.

The raid appeared to be one of the largest at the refugee camp since the Israel-Hamas war began. At least 469 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since October, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, has a limited foothold in many of the northern towns and cities.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, the Health Ministry said a Palestinian ambulance driver was shot dead near Sawiya while trying to reach Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli settlers. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Mohammed Musa was shot in the chest.

A wave of settler attacks began a week ago, after an Israeli teen was found dead.

Jahjouh and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo. AP writer Jack Jeffrey in Jerusalem contributed to this report.