GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense said Sunday health workers had uncovered at least 50 bodies of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Israel’s military said it was checking the reports.
In a statement to AFP, the civil defense agency said the remains were discovered in the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex.
“Inside the Nasser Medical complex there are mass graves dug by the Israeli occupation ... we were shocked by the presence of bodies of 50 martyrs in one of the pits yesterday,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, told AFP.
“We are continuing the search operation today and are waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number of martyrs.”
He alleged some of those killed had been tortured.
“There were no clothes on some bodies, which certainly indicates (the victims) faced torture and abuse,” Bassal said.
Intense fighting raged in mid-February in the area of the hospital, and Israeli tanks and armored vehicles surrounded it on March 26.
In a separate statement on Sunday, Hamas condemned what it said was a “mass grave of those executed in cold blood and buried with military bulldozers in the hospital’s courtyard.”
It said more than 50 bodies had been recovered there.
Several of the bodies wrapped in white shrouds were later collected by relatives, said an AFP photographer who reported that civil defense workers were seen exhuming bodies from the courtyard on Sunday.
Hospitals in Gaza have not been spared in the Israeli assault, with the military accusing Hamas of using the facilities as command centers and to hold hostages abducted in the October 7 attack.
The World Health Organization said on April 6 that the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City, had been reduced to ashes by an Israeli siege last month, leaving an “empty shell” containing many bodies.
WHO staff who gained access to the devastated facility described horrifying scenes of bodies only partly buried, their limbs sticking out, and the stench of decomposition.
Israel is engaged in a sweeping military assault against Hamas militants in Gaza after they launched a attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7.
The unprecedented assault resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, Israelis and foreigners, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Some 250 people were abducted to Gaza during the attack, of whom 129 remain captive, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has so far killed 34,097 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Gaza officials, Hamas say 50 bodies exhumed at hospital
https://arab.news/z3nhg
Gaza officials, Hamas say 50 bodies exhumed at hospital
- Hospitals in Gaza have not been spared in the Israeli assault
- Israel’s offensive in Gaza has so far killed 34,097 people, mostly women and children
Biden spoke with Netanyahu, source says; Sullivan says hostage deal very close
- Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a source familiar with the matter said, as US officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts under way to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there, the source said.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, but still had to get it across the finish line.
He said Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas.
“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” Sullivan said, “and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”
He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told the “Fox News Sunday” program in an interview taped on Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of US hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, maybe in the last day or two.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
Israel to use withheld Palestinian tax income to pay debt to state-run electric company
- Israel withheld Palestinian Authority's sums earmarked for administration expenses in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israel plans to use tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to pay the PA’s nearly 2 billion shekel ($544 million) debt to state-run Israel Electric Co. (IEC), the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.
Israel collects tax on goods that pass through Israel into the occupied West Bank on behalf of the PA and transfers the revenue to Ramallah under a longstanding arrangement between the two sides.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Smotrich has withheld sums earmarked for administration expenses in the Gaza Strip.
Those frozen funds are held in Norway and, he said at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, would instead be used to pay debt owed to the IEC of 1.9 billion shekels.
“The procedure was implemented after several anti-Israeli actions and included Norway’s unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich told cabinet ministers.
“The PA’s debt to IEC resulted in high loans and interest rates, as well as damage to IEC’s credit, which were ultimately rolled over to the citizens of Israel.”
The ultranationalist Smotrich has been opposed to sending funds to the PA, which uses the money to pay public sector wages.
Israel also deducts funds equal to the total amount of so-called martyr payments, which the PA pays to families of militants and civilians killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities.
UAE ship delivers 3,000 tonnes of relief supplies to Lebanon
- Items include food, essentials for women and children, winter necessities
LONDON: The second aid ship from the UAE arrived at Beirut port on Sunday, carrying 3,000 tonnes of relief supplies as part of the UAE Stands with Lebanon campaign.
The UAE launched its campaign to support Lebanon last October as Israel’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated in the south of the country.
Nasser Yassin, Lebanon’s environment minister and head of the government’s emergency committee, and Brig. Gen. Bassem Nabulsi, the chairman of the Supreme Relief Authority, received the ship at Beirut port.
Supplies included food, essentials for women and children, winter necessities, and shelter equipment, the Emirates News Agency reported.
Sultan Mohammed Al-Shamsi, the vice chairman of the UAE Aid Agency, said that the UAE’s moral obligation to support the Lebanese people “stems from the humanitarian legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, who dedicated himself to helping nations in need.”
The UAE announced its plan to reopen the embassy in Beirut following a phone call between the newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, on Saturday.
The leadership in Saudi Arabia welcomed the election of Aoun after a two-year political void in Lebanon. Riyadh has dedicated efforts to help the Lebanese people cope with the devastation caused by the Israeli war and has dispatched several aid planes since 2024.
King of Jordan meets Vatican secretary of state in Amman
- Cardinal Pietro Parolin was in Jordan for the inauguration of the Church of John the Baptist
- King Abdullah praises Pope Francis’s support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
LONDON: King Abdullah of Jordan welcomed Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, at Al-Husseiniya Palace in Amman on Sunday.
King Abdullah sent his greetings to Pope Francis during a meeting attended by several senior royal advisers and aides. Cardinal Parolin thanked King Abdullah for his support and patronage of the Christian communities in Jordan.
The Jordanian king praised the pope’s support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who since late 2023 have suffered the effects of an Israeli military campaign.
They agreed on the need to stop Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, and increase the flow of humanitarian aid. They also warned of aggressive Israeli policies in occupied East Jerusalem and its effect on the Islamic and Christian holy sites, the Petra news agency reported.
Parolin on Friday attended the inauguration of the Church of John the Baptist on the east bank of the Jordan River.
15 killed in an explosion and fire at a gas station in central Yemen
- At least 67 others were injured, including 40 in critical condition
- Footage circulated online showing a massive fire that sent columns of smoke into the sky and left vehicles charred and burning
CAIRO: An explosion at a gas station triggered a massive fire in central Yemen, killing at least 15 people, health officials said Sunday.
The explosion occurred Saturday at the Zaher district in the province of Bayda, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said in a statement. At least 67 others were injured, including 40 in critical condition.
The ministry said rescue teams were searching for those reported missing. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion.
Footage circulated online showing a massive fire that sent columns of smoke into the sky and left vehicles charred and burning.
Bayda is controlled by the Houthis, who have been at war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government for more than a decade.
Elsewhere in Bayda, the Houthis attacked and looted Hanaka Al-Masoud village in the Al-Qurayshiya district last week, according to the internationally recognized government. It said there were fatalities but gave no figures.
Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said the attack came after a weeklong siege of the village.
“This horrific attack targeted citizens’ homes and mosques, and resulted in many casualties, including women and children, and the destruction of property,” he said.
Rights activist Riyadh Al-Dubai said the Houthis detained dozens of men and looted homes, seizing valuables such as gold, money, daggers and other possessions. He said shelling by the Houthis had continued relentlessly day and night for more than five days.
The US Embassy in Yemen condemned the attack, saying in a statement that the “deaths, injuries, and wrongful detentions of innocent Yemenis perpetrated by Houthi terrorists are depriving the Yemeni people of peace and a brighter future.”
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people including civilians and combatants, and in recent years deteriorated largely into a stalemate and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
