Israeli airstrikes in Rafah leave 9 Palestinians dead

Rafah, April 20

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said on Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel’s war against the Islamic militant group Hamas has led to a dramatic escalation of tensions in an already volatile Middle East. The strike late on Friday hit a residential building in the western Tel Sultan neighbourhood of the city of Rafah, according to Gaza’s civil defence. The bodies of the six children, two women and a man were taken to Rafah’s Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, the hospital’s records showed.

No victims were registered from a second overnight strike in the city. Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, currently hosts more than half of Gaza’s total population of about 2.3 million people, the vast majority of whom have been displaced by fighting elsewhere.

Despite calls for restraint from the international community, including the US, the Israeli government has insisted for months that it intends to push a ground offensive into the city, where it says many of the remaining Hamas militants are holed up. Such a ground operation has not materialised so far, but the Israeli military has repeatedly carried out airstrikes.— Agencies

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