April 21, 2024 - News on the Middle East conflicts

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.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president strongly condemned the US House of Representatives' approval Saturday of a $26 billion aid package for Israel.

The aid will directly correlate to the increasing number of Palestinian casualties, said the spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, according to a statement published by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.

Abu Rudeineh labeled the aid package a "dangerous escalation" and an act of aggression against the Palestinian people. He said the support gives Israel the green light to broaden its war across the region, and undermines the prospects for regional and global stability.

The aid package passed by the House still faces a vote in the US Senate before being approved.

Back in the US: Protesters have gathered near the Wilmington, Delaware, home of US President Joe Biden — who has backed the aid package — holding signs and chanting, calling for a ceasefire.

One chant that can be heard is “Biden, Biden you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” They are also chanting “Biden is a war criminal,” and “Genocide Joe has got to go.”

The president is spending the weekend in Wilmington.

CNN's Samantha Waldenberg contributed reporting to this post.

At least 14 people have been killed during the ongoing Israel Defense Forces operation at the Nur al-Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Palestinian authorities say they have been able to retrieve a number of bodies and injured people from the camp, as the IDF has partially withdrawn from the area.

Videos filmed by residents show a bulldozer destroying a building as IDF vehicles leave the camp after more than 24 hours of the raid. 

Other videos show ambulances entering the camp after the IDF withdraws. Residents tell CNN that Israeli forces have left the immediate area but are still present in the nearby city of Tulkarm.

Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said its forces killed 10 "terrorists" and arrested eight wanted suspects during the extensive operation, which started on Thursday.

The health ministry and Palestinian news agency Wafa, meanwhile, have said at least one child and one teen are among those killed, and that the IDF has arrested young people en masse and destroyed key infrastructure.

The operation appears to be one of the largest in the West Bank since October 7. 

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 34,049, following more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Saturday.

In the last 24 hours, 37 people have died and 68 have been injured following Israeli attacks, the ministry reported.

CNN cannot independently verify the ministry's casualty figures.