Gaza rescuers exhume dozens of bodies from Al-Shifa Hospital

Palestinian civil defense workers uncover corpses buried in the grounds of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday. (AFP)
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Updated 14 March 2025
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Gaza rescuers exhume dozens of bodies from Al-Shifa Hospital

  • The Palestinians medical facility is now largely in ruins following multiple Israeli assaults during the deadly war

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that its crews had exhumed 48 bodies on Thursday from the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital, once Gaza’s biggest medical facility but now largely in ruins following multiple Israeli assaults during the war.

The agency has carried out similar work in the past to return remains to their families if they can be identified or, failing that, to remove them and give them a proper burial elsewhere.

Rescuers handed over 38 bodies after they were identified by their relatives, who took them to be reinterred in other cemeteries, agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said on Thursday.

“The other 10 exhumed bodies were handed over to the forensic department at the Ministry of Health for identification,” he said.

Bassal added that around 160 bodies remained buried within the hospital complex and that the process of exhumation would continue for several days.

AFP footage showed rescuers digging in parts of the courtyard and removing white bags reportedly containing human remains, which were then wrapped in blankets and carried away.

Gaza resident Mohammed Abu Asi, who identified the body of his brother, had come to the hospital to receive the remains.

“It’s like experiencing the war all over again. Recovering my brother’s body feels as though we are burying him today — the pain and the wound have reopened,” he said.

Another Gaza resident, Suha Al-Sharif, came to the site hoping to find her son’s body.

“I know what my son was wearing. That’s why I came. God willing, I will find him,” she said.

“I want to find him. I’m a mother — I am exhausted and do not know where my son is.”

Hospitals in Gaza, particularly Al-Shifa, have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces since the start of the war, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Gaza health workers have previously discovered bodies at Al-Shifa Hospital.

Last year, the UN Security Council expressed “deep concern” after reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies in or near hospitals in Gaza.

The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, according to official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants took 251 people hostage, 58 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has since killed at least 48,524 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.


Summer comes early for Iraq with 49 degrees Celsius in Basra

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Summer comes early for Iraq with 49 degrees Celsius in Basra

BAGHDAD: Summer has come early for Iraq this year with temperatures hitting 49 degrees Celsius (topping 120 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Basra on Thursday, the national weather center said.
“It is the highest temperature recorded in Iraq this year,” weather center spokesperson Amer Al-Jabiri told AFP.
He said the early heat was in contrast to last year, when the temperature was “relatively good” in May and “it only began to rise in June.”
In Iraq, summer temperatures often exceed 50 degrees Celsius, especially in July and August, and sometimes reach these levels earlier.
On Sunday, two cadets died and others were admitted to hospital with heat stroke at a military academy in the southern province of Dhi Qar, authorities said.
The defense ministry said nine cadets “showed signs of fatigue and exhaustion due to sun exposure” while waiting to be assigned to battalions.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the deaths of the two cadets.
Iraq is one of the five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change, according to the United Nations. It has also seen a prolonged drought and frequent dust storms.

Israel army issues evacuation warning for 14 areas of north Gaza

Updated 42 min 54 sec ago
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Israel army issues evacuation warning for 14 areas of north Gaza

  • The army told residents that it was operating with intense force

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Thursday for 14 neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip, including parts of Beit Lahia and Jabalia.

The army told residents in an Arabic-language statement that it was “operating with intense force in your areas, as terrorist organizations continue their activities and operations” there.

A similar warning for parts of northern Gaza was issued on Wednesday evening in what the army said was a response to rocket fire.

It said that one “projectile that was identified crossing into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted” by the air force.

It later announced three more launches from northern Gaza, but said the projectiles had fallen inside the Palestinian territory.

Israel has ramped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas.

The territory’s civil defense agency said Israeli attacks had killed at least 19 people on Thursday.


Turkiye’s Erdogan says Damascus must keep focused on Kurdish SDF deal

Updated 59 min 39 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Erdogan says Damascus must keep focused on Kurdish SDF deal

  • Ankara views the SDF and its factions as a terrorist group

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Syria’s government must keep focused on its deal with the Kurdish, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under which it is to integrate into the Syrian armed forces, pressing Damascus for its implementation.

Speaking to reporters on a flight from Budapest, he said Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and the United States had a committee to discuss the fate of Daesh militants in prison camps in northeast Syria, which have been run by the SDF for years.

Ankara views the SDF and its factions as a terrorist group.

“We are especially following the YPG issue very, very closely. It is important for the Damascus administration not to take its attention away from this issue,” his office on Thursday cited him as saying. The YPG militia spearheads the SDF.

He added that Iraq should focus on the issue of the camps, as most women and children at the Al-Hol camp there were from Iraq and Syria, and that Iraq should repatriate its nationals.


Israel intercepts two missiles launched from Yemen, military says

Updated 22 May 2025
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Israel intercepts two missiles launched from Yemen, military says

  • Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a ballistic missile toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and two drones toward the Tel Aviv area

Israel’s military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen and that sirens had sounded twice across the country including in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Thursday, as the Houthis stepped up attacks.
Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a ballistic missile toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and two drones toward the Tel Aviv area.
Undeterred by Israeli strikes on Yemen, the Houthis said they would continue to fire at Israel even though they have agreed to a ceasefire with the United States to halt attacks on US ships in the Red Sea.
Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa, and another last week targeting the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, most of which have been intercepted or have fallen short.
The group says it is acting in support of Gaza’s Palestinians. 


ICC prosecutor says Netanyahu arrest warrant should remain as Israel jurisdiction challenge is heard

Updated 22 May 2025
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ICC prosecutor says Netanyahu arrest warrant should remain as Israel jurisdiction challenge is heard

  • Prosecutors argue there is ‘no basis to withdraw or vacate’ the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant
  • Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nationals

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: International Criminal Court prosecutors have urged judges to reject a request by Israel to scrap arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister while the court reconsiders its jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.
In a 10-page written submission posted on the ICC website late Wednesday, prosecutors argue there is “no basis to withdraw or vacate” the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The warrants were issued in November, when judges found there was “reason to believe” Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials strongly deny the accusations.
The prosecution document was signed on behalf of prosecutor Karim Khan, who temporarily stepped down on Friday pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The filing argues it is important for the underlying investigation to continue in the “current situation where crimes are ongoing and escalating.”
Last month, appeals judges ordered a pretrial panel to reconsider an Israeli challenge to the court’s jurisdiction.
Israel argued in its application for the warrants to be withdrawn that the court “doesn’t have, and never had” jurisdiction to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nations. The Hague-based institution, however, has accepted “The State of Palestine” as one of its 126 member nations.
ICC chief prosecutor Khan is currently on leave until the conclusion of an external probe into accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.
An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court’s independent watchdog.
Along with the warrants for the Israeli officials, the court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn in February, after his death in an Israeli airstrike was confirmed.