Meanwhile, the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to its close ally.
Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.
It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the U.S.
The House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he believed the Senate would take up the legislation this week. It still needs senators’ approval and President Biden’s signature.
”We have to be ready to be prepared for our national security interests, not only in Ukraine and Russia, also in terms of military assistance to Israel, but with additional humanitarian aid for the Palestinians who are in such great challenges,” Warner said Sunday.
”The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. Among the dead was a pregnant woman in her 27th week, according to CBS News’ team on the ground. Doctors were able to keep her baby alive as of Sunday morning.
For over two months, Israel has warned it could send troops into Rafah.
The Group of 7, or G7, countries that include the U.S., Japan and the United Kingdom and whose foreign ministers met last week, warned that a full-scale operation there would have catastrophic consequences.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swath of destruction across the territory.
Around 80 per cent of the population have fled their homes to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, which experts say is on the brink of famine.
The Israel-Hamas conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the U.S. against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East.
Israel and Iran traded fire directly earlier this month, raising fears of all-out war between the longtime foes.
Tensions have also spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry, said the two killed were 18 and 19 years old, from the same family. No Israeli forces were wounded, the army said.
In the West Bank city of Tulkarm, at least 14 Palestinians were killed as part of a two-day Israel Defense Force operation over the weekend.
The IDF pulled out of the area on Saturday night, on a scale residents say they have never seen in this area before.
The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on West Bank settlers as the region has seen violence allegedly perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians since the war in nearby Gaza began. A U.S. official told CBS News that since 2022, it has been investigating an IDF unit of ultra Orthodox soldiers accused of human rights atrocities. An announcement is expected this week.
