By Democrat reporter
SKY News have been reporting today on an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s southernmost city, which killed at least nine people, six of them children.
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.
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 further north in the territory.
Despite calls for restraint from the international community, including Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, the Israeli government has said it intends to push a ground offensive into the city, where it says many of the remaining Hamas militants are holed up.
It is “forbidden to impose sanctions on the Israel Defence Forces”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
In a statement on X, Mr Netanyahu said he had been “working against the imposition of sanctions on Israeli citizens”.
“At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low,” he said.
“The government headed by me will act by all means against these moves.”
The comments come after US sources reportedly told American news website Axios that Washington was expected to sanction the IDF.
Israeli forces have killed 13 Palestinians since beginning a raid on Tulkarm city and Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry has said in an update this evening.
Earlier, the IDF said its forces killed 10 militants in the camp and the surrounding areas since it began its raid (see post at 3pm).
In a statement, it said the Israeli army and the country’s border police arrested eight Palestinian suspects from the area.
US aid package ‘sends strong message to our enemies’
Israel’s foreign affairs minister Israel Katz has said the US aid vote today proved “the strong ties and strategic partnership between Israel and the US” and “sends a strong message to our enemies”.
Below is what Mr Katz said on X…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked the US Congress for passing its aid bill for Israel.
“Thank you friends, thank you America,” he said.
The US House pushed swiftly through a series of votes today in a rare Saturday session to approve $95bn in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies.
The US House of Representatives has approved a $26bn package aiding Israel and providing humanitarian relief to people in Gaza.
The package will now go to the US Senate, where it is likely to be passed on Tuesday.
Congress has also approved sending $60.8bn in foreign aid to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, People have been attending a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv today.
Protesters are also calling for the release of hostages kidnapped in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
Israel will make its own decisions on matters of war
By Alex Rossi, Sky News international correspondent in Tel Aviv
On Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, people took to the beach in Tel Aviv. Under the hot spring sunshine, the tensions between Iran and Israel seemed a world away.
Most of the people there are hoping that the worst of this phase of the crisis has passed.
As he rested on the sand between surfs, Jonathan Weiss told me: “I definitely hope this direct bit is over. We have enough things to worry about – internally and with our direct borders.
“Lebanon, Hamas, Gaza…we don’t want to add anything to that.”
Lior Shalev agreed: “I hope everything will be over soon. It’s just unnecessary for both sides to get people hurt.”
Israel’s government has remained officially silent on the attack on a base near the Iranian city of Isfahan. It is another indication that the situation is de-escalating.
The strike appears to have been limited; symbolic in nature to send a warning rather than ignite a bigger confrontation.
But whilst the latest flare-up in the wider Middle East appears to have died down for now, Israel is still locked in conflict closer to home.
The indication is that Israel’s long-anticipated incursion into the southern city of Rafah – which Israel sees as the last stronghold for Hamas – may not be far away.
US officials met their Israeli counterparts virtually this week to discuss the imminent incursion.
The White House has consistently warned the Israelis against a wholesale ground offensive of the city, fearing that an indiscriminate approach could lead to yet more huge civilian casualties.
But as we saw this week, Israel will make its own decisions on matters of war.
