18 people are killed in Israel’s Rafah strike as the US approves a larger military aid package

According to PM Netanyahu, Israel cannot defeat Hamas completely without taking part in Rafah.

As the United States prepared to sanction billions of dollars in new military aid to its close partner, Israel launched strikes on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, overnight, killing eighteen people, including fourteen children, according to health officials’ announcement on Sunday.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, had previously declared that Rafah is necessary for Israel to achieve “total victory” over Hamas.

It is believed that 1.4 million Palestinians live in the highly populated city of Rafah.

Many of these people are refugees from past battles in Gaza, having been forced to take sanctuary in crammed tent camps, overflowing U.N.-run shelters, or small flats.

Ever since Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7, in response to the terrorist organization’s deadly cross-border strike, Netanyahu has emphasized that the primary aim of the fight is to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities.

Israeli military sources claim that Rafah is the final major bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as the militant organization’s infrastructure has been extensively targeted and damaged in earlier operations.

Despite these attempts, Hamas has been able to reorganize in certain locations and is still capable of attacking, even in the northern part of Gaza, which was the offensive’s original target.