Israeli Bombs Target Gaza’s Crowded Rafah As The Us Warns Israel Against Sending Troops There

Israel bombed targets in overcrowded Rafah early Friday, hours after Biden administration officials and aid agencies 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 overnight and into Friday hit two residential buildings in Rafah, while two other sites were bombed in central Gaza, including one that damaged a kindergarten-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians. Twenty-two people were killed, according to AP journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that Israel’s conduct in the war, ignited by a deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack, is “over the top,” the harshest U.S. criticism yet of its close ally and an expression of concern about a soaring civilian death toll in Gaza.

Read more: AP