Live Updates: Israeli strikes on Rafah kill 24 Palestinians, mostly children

Monday, 22 April, 2024

0130 GMT — The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on two homes in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza has risen to 24, including 16 children and six women, medical sources told Anadolu Agency.

The sources said a number of Palestinians had succumbed to injuries they sustained in the Israeli air raids on Saturday evening targeting two houses, one in eastern Rafah and the other in its centre.

They noted that others are still missing under the rubble.

On Saturday evening, the civil defence service in Gaza announced the retrieval of several victims from an Israeli aerial bombardment on a residential building in the eastern part of Rafah.

In a statement, they said their teams had retrieved victims from “the targeting by occupation aircraft of a multi-story residential building belonging to the Abdul-Aal family on George Street in eastern Rafah.”

Their teams "are still attempting to retrieve more fatalities and search for the missing people.”

This comes amid Israeli threats to invade Rafah despite warnings from the international community and the UN against entering the city, which is considered the last refuge for displaced people in Gaza.

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0005 GMT — Egypt, UN reiterate necessity of ending Israeli 'violations' against civilians in Gaza

Egypt and the United Nations reiterated the necessity of ending Israeli “violations” against civilians in Gaza, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, in Cairo as part of her tour, which also includes Jordan.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Shoukry and Albanese “reiterate the necessity of ending Israeli violations against civilians in Gaza, sustaining full aid delivery and eliminating violence and attacks by Israeli settlers in West Bank.”

They also stressed “the necessity of stopping Israeli practices aimed at displacing Palestinians from their lands and implementing policies of collective punishment and indiscriminate targeting of civilians.”

Shoukry warned that the current state of affairs “increases the risks of the situation exploding in all of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

2330 GMT — Rockets fired from Iraq at US-led coalition base in Syria

Rockets were fired late Sunday from northern Iraq at a military base in Syria housing a US-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces.

In response, the Iraqi forces launched a major search operation in northern Nineveh province and found the vehicle used in the attack, they said in a statement.

It is the first major attack against the coalition forces in several weeks.

The group has claimed most of the attacks on US forces carried between mid-October and early February.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group for Shia militia factions, has said it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians and out of anger at US support for Israel in the Gaza war.

For our live updates from Sunday, April 21, click here.