Israel’s war on Gaza updates: 14 killed as Israeli raid continues

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has urged the US Senate to stop sending more weapons to Israel, “not only because our laws prohibit military aid to abusive regimes but because it’s extremely damaging to our national interests.”

“The 58 bipartisan members of the House who voted against further military aid to Israel did the right thing in refusing to further undermine America’s standing in the world,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director, said in a statement.

On April 20, the US House of Representatives voted to approve a military aid package that includes $26bn for Israel. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill on April 22.

Members of Congress should understand that approving more military aid could subject them to “personal liability for aiding and abetting an ongoing genocide in Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.

Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

You can continue to follow our live coverage of the war here.

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We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap from today:

• Israeli forces continue to raid the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem, with at least 14 reported killed.
• Three Palestinians were killed and others injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of a house in the centre of the city of Rafah, according to Wafa.
• The US House of Representatives voted to provide Israel with $26bn in military aid.
• Reports say that the US is set to impose sanctions against the Israeli military’s “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank within days.
• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.
• Wafa reported that two civilians were killed and several others injured after Israeli warplanes bombed an area near Khan Younis.
• The Government Media Office in Gaza announced the total number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip daily ranges, on average, between 130 and 150 and said that Israel’s claims of about 300 trucks were “lies”.
• Funerals have been held for Palestinians, including six children, killed in an Israeli air attack on Rafah.

We have another reaction to the US decision to sanction the Netzah Yehuda Israeli military unit for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz posted on X saying he had “great appreciation for our American friends”, but the decision to impose sanctions on an Israeli military unit and its soldiers “sets a dangerous precedent and conveys the wrong message to our shared enemies during wartime”.

“I intend on acting to have this decision changed,” he concluded.

The ‘Netzah Yehuda’ battalion is an inseparable part of the Israel Defense Forces. It is subject to military law and is responsible for operating in full compliance with International law.

The State of Israel has a strong, independent judicial system that evaluates meticulously…

— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) April 20, 2024

We’ve gotten quite a bit of Israeli reaction tonight all the way from the top.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the US decision, saying that he and his government would act against these sanctions [and that they were] “absurd and morally incorrect”.

We’re also hearing from war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz. He’s usually at odds with the Israeli prime minister. They’ve had a history of disagreements throughout this war but they seem to be in consensus this time, saying that this unit is an inseparable part of the Israeli military.

We’re also hearing from members of the far right, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, known ultra-nationalists who are saying that the move can not happen.

This is a unit of the army that is specifically in the occupied West Bank that is for ultra-orthodox men. They have certain religious guidelines.

One US non-profit documented their human rights abuses from the year 2015 onwards and the list of violations is long.

Reports within Israeli media say that this unit of the army is directly involved with the settler enterprise and the people… in it are members of the Hilltop Youth Movement, an ultra-nationalist violence settler group in the occupied West Bank who often set up these illegal outposts on Palestinian land.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory posted on X that two-thirds of coordinated humanitarian missions in Gaza were impeded or significantly delayed by Israeli authorities on Saturday.

“On average, each of these missions faced nearly five hours of delay before being allowed to proceed”, the post read.

“Some waited so long they had to turn back, while others proceeded but significantly curtailed their operations due to the limited remaining time”.

“As a result, critical supplies, equipment and fuel for backup generators were not provided to hospitals”

Today, two-thirds of coordinated humanitarian missions in #Gaza were impeded or significantly delayed by the Israeli authorities.

On average, each of these missions faced nearly five hours of delay before being allowed to proceed. #AccessDenied

1/3 pic.twitter.com/9lizj9PCwa

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) April 20, 2024

Mustafa Taqatqa has issued a statement on the ongoing Israeli raid of the occupied West Bank city, in which at least 14 Palestinians have been killed.

He offered condolences to those who have been killed and their families, saying that Israeli crimes include “targeting and abusing citizens, and the deliberate and brutal sabotage of infrastructure and the demolition of … houses, vandalizing them and tampering with their contents”.

He also said that he met with “technical crews and the competent authorities” to coordinate work to remove the effects of the raid, which has damaged large areas of the Nur Shams refugee camp.

Israeli forces have been conducting operations in the area since Thursday night.

In the latest episode of The Listening Post, we look at how the flurry of headlines around Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel drowned out many important stories coming out of Gaza.

Three Palestinians have been killed and others injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of a house in the Shaboura camp in the centre of the city of Rafah, the Wafa news agency reports.

Among the dead are a child and a pregnant woman. At least five children were injured and arrived at the Kuwait Specialty Hospital in Rafah.

Earlier, we reported that six children were among at least nine people killed in Israeli air raids that hit two homes in the Tal as-Sultan and al-Salam neighbourhoods of Rafah on Saturday.

A video posted on Instagram – and verified by Al Jazeera – shows the aftermath of Israeli forces’ action against parts of the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces have been carrying out a raid on the camp since Thursday night, killing at least 14 according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yazan Hamayel (@yazan._.hamayel2)

Translation: The extent of the destruction inside Nour Shams camp.

The Palestinian presidency says the US House’s approval of billions of dollars in new military aid for Israel marks “an aggression against the Palestinian people”.

The money would “translate into thousands of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip” and the West Bank, said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, calling it a “dangerous escalation”.

As we reported earlier, the House approved $26.38bn to “support Israel in its effort to defend itself against Iran and its proxies”, as well as reimbursing US military operations in response to recent attacks.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein says Israel will summon ambassadors of countries that voted for full Palestinian UN membership “for a protest talk” on Sunday.

Marmorstein’s comments came after the Palestinian Authority said it would “reconsider” its relationship with the US after Washington vetoed the Palestinian membership bid earlier this week.

Thursday’s vote saw 12 countries on the UN Security Council back a resolution recommending full Palestinian membership and two, the UK and Switzerland, abstain.

Only the US, Israel’s staunchest ally, voted against it, using its veto to block the resolution.

In a post on X, Marmorstein wrote: “The ambassadors of France, Japan, South Korea, Malta, the Slovak Republic, and Ecuador will be summoned tomorrow for a démarche, and a strong protest will be presented to them.

“In addition, an identical protest will be presented to additional countries that voted for the Algerian proposal, which was rejected, to upgrade the status of the Palestinians”.

The Israeli prime minister reacted in an X post to reports that the US will sanction a unit of the Israeli army in the coming days.

“At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the [army] is the height of absurdity and a moral low. The government headed by me will act by all means against these moves,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.

We reported earlier on the possible sanctions, which will be against the Israeli military’s “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank within days.

Netanyahu also said that he has been working against the imposition of sanctions on Israeli citizens, adding that this is something he spoke about with United States officials.

The US and European Union imposed sanctions this week on extremist Israeli settlers accused of violent actions in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry now says that 13 bodies from the refugee camp have arrived at Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem, increasing from the 12 they reported a short while ago.

This brings the death toll from Israel’s raid in the occupied West Bank to 14, the ministry said.

Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israeli territory last week changed the agenda at the Group of Seven (G7) diplomatic summit, and drew the focus to tensions in the Middle East.

The foreign ministers present urged “all parties” to “work to prevent further escalation” in the Middle East.

“In light of reports of strikes on April 19th, we urge all parties to work to prevent further escalation. The G7 will continue to work to this end,” they said in a statement.

Watch our report to learn more: 

Earlier, we posted a video recorded by a Palestinian lawyer and verified by Al Jazeera, showing the aftermath of an Israeli attack on al-Mawasi near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa now reports that two civilians were killed and several others were injured after Israeli warplanes bombed the area.

Medical sources told the news agency that Israeli air strikes targeted a home adjacent to an encampment housing displaced families while Israeli warships targeted the northwestern areas of Khan Younis city.