Israel launches new airstrikes on overcrowded Rafah

Israel bombed targets in overcrowded Rafah this morning, hours after Biden administration officials warned Israel against expanding its Gaza ground offensive to the southern city where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.

Airstrikes hit two residential buildings in Rafah, killing eight Palestinians, and a third strike targeted a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in central Gaza, killing at least four people, according to hospital officials and Associated Press journalists who saw bodies arriving at hospitals.

According to the AP, shortly after midnight, a residential building was struck near Rafah’s Kuwaiti Hospital, killing five people from the al-Sayed family, including three children and a woman, while a second Rafah strike killed three more people.

John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, had said an Israel ground offensive in Rafah is “not something we would support.”