April 21, 2024 - News on the Middle East conflicts

Israeli troops have concluded a two-day operation in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces told CNN on Sunday.

Images from the offensive on the camp, which appears to be one of the largest in the West Bank since October 7, show concrete slabs and rubble strewn across the area.

At least 14 people, including one child, were killed in the raid, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and official news agency Wafa said Saturday.

The IDF claimed security forces killed 10 "terrorists" and arrested “eight wanted suspects” during its “extensive counterterrorism” operation, which started on Thursday. 

Attacks on Palestinians: Violence in the occupied West Bank has only increased during Israel's offensive in Gaza.

An ambulance driver from the Palestine Red Crescent Society was killed while transporting Palestinians injured in an attack by settlers in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory increased in 2023 to their highest level since the UN began recording data in 2006, the Human Rights Watch reported Wednesday.

At least 483 Palestinians have been killed by settlers or IDF soldiers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, according to the health ministry.

The spike in violence by extremist settlers has led to more sanctions by the US and EU.

This post has been updated with additional data on violence in the West Bank.

Hamas has condemned the United States House of Representatives' approval of a more than $26 billion foreign aid package for Israel, calling it a violation of "all international laws and humanitarian norms."

The US administration and President Joe Biden, Hamas said, bear personal "political, legal, and moral" responsibility for what it described as war crimes in Gaza. The bill provides a “green light” for Israel to continue its "brutal aggression" in the strip, Hamas said.

The US House passed the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act on Saturday with a vote of 366-58.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and the “urgent need” for a ceasefire during a meeting with Hamas' top political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the capital Istanbul on Saturday, his office said.

It was the first meeting between Erdogan and Haniyeh since October 7, when Israel began its military invasion into Gaza following Hamas' attack. Earlier this week, the Hamas leader held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Doha.

Erdogan said Turkey had provided Gaza with more than 45,000 tons of humanitarian aid in order to “alleviate some of the suffering” and would continue to do so.

Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed 48 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry in Gaza reported on Sunday, raising the total death toll to 34,097 people killed.

At least 76,980 people have been injured since October 7, the ministry said. A number of Palestinians are trapped under the rubble and destroyed roads, the ministry added, but ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them.

The vast majority of those killed in Gaza are women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. As of April 20, the ministry reported:

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

Israeli strikes hit four sites in southern Lebanon overnight, Lebanese state-owned National News Agency reported, as regional tensions intensify over Israel's military campaign in Gaza. The strikes hit the villages of Khiam, Tayr Harfa, Kfarkella near Odaisseh, and in an area between Ramieh and Beit Leif.

The Israeli military confirmed bombardment on three of the four locations, hitting what it said were Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed, Lebanese militant group with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East.

In Tayr Harfa, Israeli forces said "a terrorist was identified operating inside a Hezbollah military structure" which fighter jets struck. Elsewhere, Israeli troops hit "an observation post" in Odaisseh and "two military structures" in Khiam.

Israel-Lebanon relations: Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in cross-border fire and tit-for-tat exchanges since October 7, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.

Hezbollah’s political stance has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants. It has roundly condemned Israel’s relentless airstrikes on Gaza, which have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and injured more than 76,900, according to the Ministry of Health there.

CNN's Tamara Qiblawi and Abeer Salman contributed reporting.

A West Bank-wide labor strike has been called for Sunday, a working day, over Palestinian deaths in Tulkarem in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian political faction Fatah said on Saturday, according to official Palestinian news agency WAFA. 

The strike calls on people "to unite in support of our people," Fatah said, according to WAFA.

The Palestinian Teachers Union said that a general strike will be adhered to at all schools, educational facilities, and the ministry, WAFA reported, adding that the General Union of Transport Workers also said it is committed to adhering to the strike.

Some context: The call for a general strike was announced after 14 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military operation in Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem, in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israel is carrying out what appears to be one of its largest operations in the West Bank since its war against Hamas in Gaza started in early October. The Israeli military claims it killed 10 "terrorists" at the Nur al-Shams refugee camp, while the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported 14 people killed — including at least one child — as well as mass arrests and destruction.

Here's what else has happened:

The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemned two separate incidents involving emergency medical crews operating in the West Bank on Saturday.

An ambulance driver was killed by Israeli settlers as he tried to rush injured Palestinians to safety, and another ambulance crew member was detained and questioned by the Israel Defense Forces outside a West Bank hospital, according to the ministry and Palestine Red Crescent Society.

"The Ministry urgently calls on international health organizations, human rights institutions, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently act to curb the escalating practices of the occupation and settlers against treatment centers and medical crews, and to allow them to perform their humanitarian duty," the ministry said.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Israel's foreign ministry will summon ambassadors from various countries Sunday to express its displeasure with their support for this week's Palestinian membership bid at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Saturday.

The diplomatic push involves countries that have voted in favor of Palestinian membership in the UN and have ambassadors stationed in Israel, including France, Ecuador, Japan, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia, China and Russia.

Algeria, Sierra Leone, Guyana and Mozambique — which also supported the proposal — do not have embassies in Israel.