No let-up in assaults as more Palestinians, including kids, die

RAFAH: Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said on Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel, its close ally.

“Inthecomingdays,wewillincreasethepolitical and military pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to bring back our hostages and achieve victory. We will land more and painful blows on Hamas - soon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. He didn’t give details.

The $26 billion US aid package approved by the House of Representatives on Saturday includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, which experts say is on the brink of famine.

The Senate could pass the package as soon as Tuesday, and President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.

BODIES EXHUMED: Gaza’s civil defence said on Sunday dozens of bodies had been found buried at a Gaza hospital complex previously raided by Israel.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said its teams had discovered 50 bodies since Saturday buried in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis.

“We are continuing the search operation today and are waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number of martyrs,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told reporters.

“There were no clothes on some bodies, which certainly indicates (the victims) faced torture and abuse,” Bassal said.

Israel’s military said it was checking the reports. Hamas in a statement said the 50 bodies were exhumed from what it called a “mass grave of those executed in cold blood and buried with military bulldozers in the hospital’s courtyard”.

The Israeli army said it was checking these reports.

WEST BANK SHOOTING: Tensions have also spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron on Sunday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two killed were 18 and 19, from the same family.

The war has killed at least 34,097 Palestinians and wounded another 76,980, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

ISRAELI BATTALION SANCTION: The United States appears close to sanctioning an Israeli military unit over alleged human rights violations in the West Bank, a move the Israeli prime minister angrily denounced as “the height of absurdity.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at such steps when asked by a reporter in Italy about reports that his department had recommended cuts in military aid to an Israeli unit involved in violent incidents in the West Bank.

Netanyahu said on Sunday he would fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units for alleged rights violations, after media reports said Washington was planning such a step.

“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) - I will fight it with all my strength,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, a centrist former armed forces chief, said in a statement on Sunday that he spoke with Blinken and asked him to reconsider the matter.

Gantz said any such sanctions would be a mistake because they would harm Israel’s legitimacy during a time of war and that they were unjustified because Israel has an independent justice system and a military that keeps international law.

BABY DIES: A baby girl was delivered from the womb of a Palestinian killed along with her husband and daughter by an Israeli attack in the Gaza city of Rafah, where 19 people died overnight in intensified strikes, Palestinian health officials said.

The dead, killed in hits on two houses, included 13 children from one family, they said.

The baby, weighing 1.4 kg and delivered in an emergency C-section, was stable and improving gradually, said Mohammed Salama, a doctor caring for her.

Her mother, Sabreen Al Sakani, had been 30 weeks pregnant.

The baby was placed in an incubator in a Rafah hospital alongside another infant, with the words “The baby of the martyr Sabreen Al Sakani” written on tape across her chest.

Sakani’s young daughter Malak, who was killed in the strike, had wanted to name her new sister Rouh, meaning spirit in Arabic, said her uncle Rami Al Sheikh.

“The little girl Malak was happy that her sister was coming to the world,” he said.

The baby would stay in hospital for three to four weeks, said Salama, the doctor. “After that we will see about her leaving, and where this child will go, to the family, to the aunt or uncle or grandparents. Here is the biggest tragedy. Even if this child survives, she was born an orphan,” he said.

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for new elections to replace Netanyahu and a deal with Hamas to release the hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned.