Palestinian health officials said Monday a series of Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 22 people in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
Witnesses and medics said the airstrikes hit three houses in Rafah.
The area located along the border between Gaza and Egypt is currently host to more than half of Gaza’s population as people seek shelter from Israel’s military campaign aimed at eliminating the Hamas militant group.
Israel’s military said Monday its warplanes carried out strikes against Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.
Hamas officials were due Monday in Egypt for the latest talks about a proposed cease-fire Israel that would include a halt in fighting for a period of weeks and the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Sunday about the nearly seven-month war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, but the White House gave no immediate signal that a cease-fire is imminent.
A White House statement said the two leaders “reviewed ongoing talks to secure the release of hostages together with an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.”
Negotiations have been underway for months on ways to halt the fighting, but Israel and Hamas remain stalemated in talks brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar.
In the call with Netanyahu, the White House said Biden noted his agreement with 17 other world leaders demanding that Hamas immediately release the 100 or so hostages it is holding and agree to a cease-fire. The U.S. has been pushing for a six-week halt in the fighting.
Hamas has demanded that Israel end the war and leave Gaza, but Netanyahu has resisted and held out the threat of a ground invasion on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.
The White House said Biden again made it clear to Netanyahu that the U.S. opposes an Israeli ground attack on Rafah because of the danger to the Palestinians living there.
The two leaders also discussed increases in the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including through new northern openings starting this week.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week” show Sunday that a temporary pier for humanitarian relief trucks the U.S. is building on the Gaza coast of the Mediterranean Sea could open in two or three weeks.
The Biden-Netanyahu call came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Mideast for talks with regional officials in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel from Monday through Wednesday.
The State Department said Blinken would emphasize the U.S. view that it is Hamas that it is the obstacle to a cease-fire. It said the top U.S. diplomat “will also emphasize the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading and discuss ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region, including through a pathway to an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.”
Hamas killed 1,200 people in the initial attack in Israel last October and captured about 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent retaliatory counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,400, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, with Israel saying the death toll includes several thousand Hamas militants it has killed.
Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages, along with the remains of 30 or more hostages who have either been killed or otherwise died in the ensuing months.
Also Sunday, the U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force “conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Northern Gaza to provide essential relief to civilians in Gaza affected by the ongoing conflict,” a CENTCOM statement said.
“The joint operation included Jordanian provided food and four U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft. The U.S. C-130's dropped over 25,000 Meals Ready to Eat (MREs),” CENTCOM said. “To date the U.S. has dropped nearly 1,110 tons of humanitarian assistance.”
CENTCOM also reported it “successfully engaged” five aerial drones over the Red Sea. It did not specify the origin of the drones, but in recent months U.S. forces have been working to protect the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping corridors from attacks by the Yemen-based Houthi militant group.
Some material in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
