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Israeli forces gather at the border with Gaza, southern Israel - 25 Apr 2024

Internally displaced Palestinians at a beach in southern Gaza, Deir Al Balah - 19 Apr 2024

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Israeli leaders thanked the United States after the House passed a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/20/house-vote-ukraine-israel-aid-johnson-2/" target=_blank>foreign aid bill</a> Saturday that provides $26.4 billion in military aid to Israel and humanitarian assistance, including some for Gaza.

Calling it a “much appreciated” step, Israeli Prime Minister <a href="https://x.com/netanyahu/status/1781752374865854548" target=_blank>Benjamin Netanyahu</a> said on X that the measure “demonstrates strong bipartisan support for Israel and defends Western civilization.” Defense Minister <a href="https://x.com/yoavgallant/status/1781759450262478895" target=_blank>Yoav Gallant</a> applauded the United States for its “unwavering support” at a time when Israel is facing threats on several fronts, including from Iran.

The package includes <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8034/text?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template" target=_blank>$4 billion</a> for replenishing the Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems and $1.2 billion for procuring the Iron Beam defense system.

It also includes $9 billion in humanitarian assistance, some of which will be allotted to Gaza. None of the assistance, however, can go toward the largest humanitarian group serving Gaza, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). The United States suspended funding for the agency after Israel alleged that a handful of its employees participated in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Hamas</a>’s Oct. 7 attacks.

The measure received bipartisan support, passing 366 to 58 in the chamber that’s narrowly controlled by the GOP. Twenty-one Republicans and 37 Democrats voted against the bill. <a href="https://x.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/1781755706133147820" target=_blank>Nearly 20 of those Democrats</a> said in a statement that, while they support Israel’s right to self-defense, supplying more offensive weapons to Israel “could result in more killings of civilians” in Gaza. “Most Americans do not want our government to write a blank check to further Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war in Gaza,” they said.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill this week, and Biden is expected to sign it.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out strikes in the city of Rafah overnight, killing 16 people, including nine children, the Palestinian state news agency <a href="https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/143388" target=_blank>Wafa reported</a>. A pregnant woman was killed alongside her husband and their child when the couple’s house in the Shaboura camp was bombed, Wafa said. Doctors were able to save the woman’s baby, the Kuwaiti Hospital said, adding that the baby would be sent to the Emirati Hospital for further care.

Suhaib al-Hams, director of the Kuwaiti Hospital, said by phone Sunday that at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, three patients arrived at the hospital: Malak Jouda, 5; her father, Shukri Jouda, 29; and her mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, 25. Hams said the hospital conducted tests and found that the mother was seven months pregnant, and doctors operated to save her baby. The hospital gave the baby, a girl, first aid before transferring her to the Emirati Hospital in stable condition, Hams said.

The Israel Defense Forces, when asked for comment about the reports of strikes Saturday on the Shaboura refugee camp, said, “at the given times, the IDF struck several military targets of the terrorist organizations in Gaza including military compounds, launch posts and armed terrorists.”

Palestinians have for months been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/02/israel-rafah-military-operation-maps-photos/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=wp_main" target=_blank>bracing for an expected Israeli assault</a> on Rafah, which Israel says is home to the last intact Hamas battalions and more than 100 hostages still held by the group. The United States has urged Israel not to invade the southern city until it can safely evacuate the more than a million Palestinians sheltering there.

Netanyahu vowed Sunday to increase military and diplomatic pressure on Hamas “in the coming days.” In a recorded statement marking the Jewish holiday of Passover, he lamented the absence at the Seder table this year of the Israelis being held hostage, and said the military would escalate its tactics against Hamas because the group has “outright rejected all proposals for [their] release.”

Israeli officials expressed alarm Sunday at a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/04/20/us-israel-sanctions-idf-west-bank" target=_blank>report in Axios</a> that the United States is expected to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/19/israel-blinken-leahy-human-rights/" target=_blank>announce sanctions</a> against the Netzah Yehuda battalion, an ultra-Orthodox unit of the IDF that has been accused of human rights violations in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu said in<a href="https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/1781772418651975944" target=_blank> a statement</a> on X that withholding aid from the unit would be “the height of absurdity and a moral low.” Opposition leader Benny Gantz, a member of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/20/israel-war-cabinet-iran-netanyahu-gallant-gantz/" target=_blank>Israel’s war cabinet</a>, told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a call Sunday that the move would be “a mistake” and “harm Israel’s international legitimacy.”

A flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza is preparing to sail from Turkey in the coming days, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/21/gaza-aid-flotilla-turkey-israel/" target=_blank>organizers told The Washington Post</a>, on a mission aimed at breaching Israel’s naval blockade and highlighting the lack of aid reaching Palestinians in the besieged enclave. A similar flotilla gained worldwide attention in 2010 after an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, killed 10 people and sparked a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel.

At least 14 people were killed in a days-long raid by Israel’s military at the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, including a 15-year-old boy, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/p/9xzjubYCXyZPkLKS/?mibextid=WC7FNe" target=_blank>Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah</a> said Saturday. The IDF said all 14 were militants killed in close-quarters combat, adding that its forces arrested 15 “wanted suspects” and destroyed two “explosives laboratories.” Separately, an ambulance driver was fatally shot Saturday near the village of al-Sawiya, south of Nablus, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The IDF said the military police would investigate.

Thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv called for the Israeli government’s resignation and for the release of hostages held by Hamas. They gathered on Saturday ahead of Passover, which begins Monday. A video shown at the protest in Tel Aviv said, “Until they return, it’s not a holiday, and it’s not Seder.”

At least 34,097 people have been killed and 76,980 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the <a href="https://t.me/MOHMediaGaza/5331" target=_blank>Gaza Health Ministry</a>, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says that <a href="https://www.idf.il/%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%A8%D7%99-%D7%99%D7%97%D7%99%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%9F-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%94/%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%99-%D7%A6%D7%94-%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%94/" target=_blank>260</a> soldiers have been killed since its military operation in Gaza began.

A previous version of this article incorrectly said the baby who was saved in Rafah was a boy. The baby was a girl, according to a doctor at Rafah's Emirati Hospital. The article has been corrected.

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Niha Masih is a reporter at The Washington Post's Seoul hub, where she covers breaking news in the United States and across the world. Previously, she was The Post's correspondent in India, where she covered the rise of majoritarian nationalism, conflict in Kashmir, the covid crisis and digital surveillance of citizens.

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Annabelle Timsit is a breaking news reporter for The Washington Post's London hub, covering news as it unfolds in the United States and around the world during the early morning hours in Washington.

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Sarah Dadouch is a Beirut-based Middle East correspondent for The Washington Post. She was previously a Reuters correspondent in Beirut, Riyadh and Istanbul.

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