Israeli airstrike kills 13 in Rafah as Palestinian leader pleads with US

At least 13 people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, medics said on Monday.

Israeli warplanes struck three houses in the refugee camp, where over a million Palestinians have taken shelter from months of Israeli bombardment, health officials said. Hamas media outlets put the toll at 15.

The planes reportedly also struck two houses in Gaza City, killing and wounding several people. The toll from the attack in the north was not immediately known.

The attacks occurred despite Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pleading with the US to stop Israel from attacking the border city.

Mr Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, said that the US was the only nation capable of halting Israel’s assault on Rafah.

“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Mr Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Israel has threatened for weeks to launch a ground assault on Rafah and stepped up airstrikes last week to destroy what it calls Hamas’s “remaining battalions”.

The US, the UK and several other nations have called on Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Rafah, fearing for the lives of the refugees gathered there.

Gazan authorities remove the remains of Palestinians from a mass grave (Getty)

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians so far, displaced most of its 2.3 million people and laid much of the enclave to waste.

The ongoing war was triggered by an attack by Hamas militants on Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 and taking 253 hostages.

US president Joe Biden “reiterated his clear position” on the Israeli military’s possible invasion of Rafah in a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.

Mr Biden previously said Washington wouldn’t support such an operation without an appropriate and credible humanitarian plan.

“The president reaffirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” the White House said in a statement, without providing further details.

Egypt is expected to host leaders from Hamas on Monday to discuss prospects for a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Hamas said a delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s deputy Gaza chief, would discuss a ceasefire proposal handed by Hamas to mediators from Qatar and Egypt as well as Israel’s response.

The truce talks in Cairo will take place between the Hamas delegation and the Qatari and Egyptian mediators, backed by the US. “Hamas has some questions and inquiries over the Israeli response to its proposal which the movement received from mediators on Friday,” a Hamas official told Reuters.

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