Israel-Gaza updates: 22, including 18 children, reported dead in Rafah strikes

The IDF says it struck military targets of terrorist organizations in Gaza.

ByABC NEWS
Video byJulian Kim and Dara Elasfar
Last Updated: April 21, 2024, 4:13 PM EDT

Israel launched a retaliatory strike against Iran early Friday morning local time, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.

The strike followed Iran's attack on Saturday, when Tehran sent a volley of more than 300 drones and missiles toward targets in Israel, according to Israeli military officials. All but a few were intercepted by Israel and its allies, including the United States, officials said.

Iran's weekend attack came more than six months after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, after which the Israeli military began its bombardment of Gaza.

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Here's how the news is developing.
Apr 14, 11:27 am

What to know about Iran's attack on Israel

Israeli officials said the country's Iron Dome defense system endured a big test from Iran's attack on Saturday, intercepting 99% of the 300 "threats of various types" thrown at it.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari, launched 170 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more than 120 ballistic missiles and more than 30 cruise missiles in the attack.

Hagari said "99% of the threats launched towards Israeli territory were intercepted -- a very significant strategic achievement."

Hagari said the attack resulted in only one known Israeli casualty, a 7-year-old girl who was severely injured when she was struck by shrapnel apparently from an intercepted missile.

Apr 04, 2024, 5:17 PM EDT

Child in Gaza ate grass to survive, UNICEF spokesperson says

A UNICEF spokesperson on the ground in Gaza told ABC News Live she is "shocked" by the conditions she has seen in hospitals, including malnourished children.

The spokesperson, Tess Ingram, said she recently visited Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza and met a 7-year-old boy who was "eating grass."

"He was so sick and in so much pain," Ingram told ABC's Terry Moran Thursday. "Thankfully, the doctors there think he will make a full recovery, but he is one of hundreds of children they said that they're treating for malnutrition at the moment."

"This has to be unacceptable, particularly when the aid is just a few kilometers away, as is the nutrition treatments that we have that can save children's lives," she added.

Asked how to protect those providing humanitarian resources in Gaza, following the Israeli airstrike on an aid convoy that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers earlier this week, Ingram said "it's called international humanitarian law."

"That is what we are calling on the parties to the conflict to respect," she said.

-ABC News' Luis Rodriguez, Isabella Meneses, Kiara Brantley-Jones and Robinson Perez

Apr 04, 2024, 4:15 PM EDT

World Central Kitchen attack is part of pattern, NGOs operating in Gaza say

Officials from humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip stressed to reporters Thursday that they believe the Israeli airstrikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on Monday is part of a pattern.

PHOTO: A person holds a document of aid worker Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, who was killed in an Israeli strike along with other foreign workers from the World Central Kitchen, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Apr. 3, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

They said other humanitarian workers were targeted and killed before, including doctors, nurses and journalists, but they were Palestinians.

"The condemnation for the World Central Kitchen incident is right and just, but where is it for every other humanitarian worker, for every other hospital that is destroyed, for every attempt to manipulate the media?" said Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières. "What happened to [World Central Kitchen] is part of a pattern. ... This is about impunity and total disregard of rules of war."

World Central Kitchen aid workers who were killed in Gaza, Damian Sobol, Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, James Kirby, Jacob Flickinger, John Chapman, Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, and James Henderson.
World Central Kitchen/Reuters

Asked if the World Central Kitchen attack will significantly decrease humanitarian work in Gaza, Lockyear responded, "We remain present in Gaza, but we are assessing the risks on a daily basis."

-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini and Ellie Kaufman

Apr 04, 2024, 4:11 PM EDT

US warns of policy changes if Israel doesn't take action to better protect civilians

President Joe Biden spoke Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their first conversation since seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

Biden had strongly condemned the incident, which Israel's said was unintentional, saying he was "outraged."

Relatives and friends mourn the death of Saif Abu Taha, a staff member of the US-based aid group World Central Kitchen who was killed in an Israeli strike, April 2, 2024.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

Biden further expressed to Netanyahu that the strikes on the food relief workers and the overall humanitarian crisis in Gaza are "unacceptable," according to a White House readout of the call.

For the first time, the White House hinted the president may consider a change in U.S. policy with respect to Gaza if Israel doesn't take action to better protect civilians and aid workers.

"He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," the readout read. "He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps."

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-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Alexandra Hutzler

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