Al Jazeera :
A week after 14 first-responders disappeared, witnesses tell Al Jazeera Israeli troops killed and buried their bodies along with ambulances in southern Rafah city.
Attacks have killed at least 921 people and wounded 2,054 others in Gaza since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas on March 18.
Israel bombs Beirut for the first time since a ceasefire was agreed in November with Hezbollah.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face severe hunger and malnutrition in Gaza as Israel’s total blockade continues for more than three weeks, the UN warns.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 50,277 Palestinians are confirmed dead and 114,095 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. Gaza’s Government Media Office also updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks and more than 200 taken captive.
Red Crescent ‘in state of shock’ after body, destroyed vehicles found in Rafah
We’ve been reporting on the Gaza rescue team that went missing a week ago in southern Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan district.
Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) members and international agency staff who finally made it to the scene said they found the body of the mission leader, Anwar Abdel Hamid al-Attar, “in dismembered pieces”.
Destroyed ambulances and fire engines were buried and “their features obliterated”.
“Our teams found torn safety equipment worn by the crew at the crime scene. This suggests the Israeli occupation forces directly targeted the crew during their incursion, then deliberately altered the area’s features and concealed the bodies of some civilians using bulldozers and heavy machinery,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.
“The PRCS expresses deep concern for the safety of its teams and holds Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for their fate,” the Red Crescent said.
The World Food Programme warns food stocks in Gaza will only last two weeks, putting more than two million people again at risk of starvation.
“What is concerning is that the international community has not moved in any way,” Sultan Barakat, professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera.
Barakat said the US has lost its credibility as a mediator in the region as it accepted Israel’s policy of starvation and is advocating for it, while European powers are busy dealing with Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Beyond Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also managed to get the Trump administration to launch more than 400 attacks on Yemen and may be looking to get Washington involved in Lebanon, too, he said.
The prime minister’s decision to bomb a southern Beirut suburb on Friday, despite the two rockets launched towards Israel having caused no damage, was a show of force that would achieve little in keeping Israel’s northern communities safe.
“There are a lot of groups within Lebanon that have an agenda against Israel and what [Netanyahu should be doing is] supporting the government,” Barakat said, instead of undermining its legitimacy by taking military action.
Military analyst Elijah Magnier says what’s happening in Lebanon “could potentially become a limited but deliberate Israeli military campaign on the country that “pushes boundaries” without provoking a full-scale response.
Israel wants to push the government to the negotiating table and “force Lebanon to do something that they want to do, which is to normalise relations with Israel, which is considered an enemy state”.
“Israel has the full power today to do whatever it wants without accountability, and it has [US] President Donald Trump, unlike President Joe Biden, fully on its side and with the support of Benjamin Netanyahu’s agenda in Lebanon, in Syria, in Gaza, in the [occupied] West Bank,” he told Al Jazeera.
“So Israel has been rearmed by the Americans to pursue this objective, and Hezbollah is taking benefit from the ceasefire to reorganise itself, close the holes … change the objective from being a regional army to become a national or domestic force.”
At least 921 Palestinians have been killed and 2,054 others wounded in the latest wave of Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The death toll since October 7, 2023, has risen to 50,277 killed and 114,095 injured.
According to the latest ministry update, 25 people were killed in the past 24 hours and 70 taken to hospital.
