Israeli strikes overnight on Rafah in southern Gaza killed 22 people, including 18 children, health authorities said on Sunday, with the US reportedly on track to approve billions of dollars of extra military aid.
It came as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country had showed its “power” during its attack on Israel, after a string of tit-for-tat strikes between the nations led to fears of an all-out regional war.
Mr Khamenei called upon Iran’s military to “ceaselessly pursue military innovation and learn the enemy’s tactics”. A wave of missiles launched by Tehran against Israel on 13 April in response to the attack on its Syria consulate were intercepted by Israel with assistance from the US and the UK.
“How many missiles were launched and how many of them hit their target is not the primary question, what really matters is that Iran demonstrated its willpower during that operation,” Mr Khamenei said.
His comments followed the emergence of satellite images purportedly showing damage to an Iranian air base by Israel’s retaliatory strike on Friday.
Israel has been carrying out near-daily air raids on Rafah and has vowed to expand its ground offensive there, even as the US warned against a broad offensive in the city and called for a more targeted approach.
The first strike killed a husband and pregnant wife and their three-year-old child, while doctors managed to save the unborn baby, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital.
The second strike killed 17 children and two women from the same family, according to hospital records. An airstrike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.
The attacks come despite repeated international calls for restraint, with more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population sheltered in the city on the Egyptian border.
The US – which has “flatly denied” reports it gave a “greenlight” for a Rafah operation if Israel avoided heavy retaliation for Iran’s attack on its territory – said last week that it wanted to see Hamas defeated in the city but was concerned about “various courses of action”.
US officials said they had raised concerns about the plans in a meeting on Thursday and said representatives of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed “to take these concerns into account”.
Mr Netanyahu has since vowed to reject any sanctions on the country’s military, saying he would “fight it with all my strength”.
The House of Representatives approved a $26bn aid package on Saturday that includes around $9bn in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and injured 76,901, according to the enclave’s health ministry, with around 80 per cent of the population having fled their homes and the Strip on the brink of famine.
It claims that around two-thirds of the casualties are women and children, and says the real toll is likely to be higher as many bodies are trapped under the rubble.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) say that Hamas fighters are hiding out in Rafah, and blame the militants for civilian casualties because they operate from residential areas.
The Israel-Hamas conflict began after the militants on 7 October launched a brutal attack on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken captive. Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others, according to Israel.
The IDF rarely comments on individual strikes, and says it has killed more than 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
Thousands of Israelis on Saturday took to the streets to call for elections to replace Mr Netanyahu and more action on a deal to release the hostages. The Prime Minister has vowed the conflict will continue until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are returned.
Fears of an imminent all-out war in the Middle East were at least temporarily averted after a contained Israeli missile strike on an Iranian air base on Friday, with new satellite images believed to show damage to part of an air-defence system at an airfield in Isfahan. Israel has not officially taken responsibility for the strike, although US officials said it was behind the attack.
Tehran on Friday played down the “infiltration”, saying that drones were neutralised by air defences and there had not been any damage or injuries, indicating that it had no plans for retaliation.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has said there was “no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites”.
Tensions between the countries had escalated after a suspected 1 April Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. Iran retaliated by attacking Israel on 13 April.
It sparked regional unrest, pitting the US and Israel against against Iran and its Middle East proxies, with insiders concerned the eruption of hostilities could lead to a major conflict in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, violence has flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with IDF soldiers killing two Palestinians who the army said had attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the town of Hebron on Sunday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two killed were 18 and 19 years old, from the same family.
Additional reporting by agencies