210 bodies recovered from temporary mass graves in Nasser hospital compound – local authorities
Palestinian civil defence authorities in the Gaza Strip said on Monday it had now uncovered 210 bodies from a temporary burial ground inside the main hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Associated Press reports the burial area in the Nasser hospital was built when Israeli forces were besieging the facility last month. At the time, people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital yard, the civil defence group said.
In a statement, the department said a total of 210 bodies have been recovered from the hospital yard since Friday.
It said some of the bodies were of people killed during the hospital siege. Others were killed when Israeli forces raided the hospital, also last month.
After the military withdrew from Khan Younis earlier this month, residents have been returning to the site in search of the bodies of their loved ones with the aim of burying them in permanent graves elsewhere.
This photograph, taken yesterday, shows Palestinians preparing a body for reburial after it was removed from the mass grave in the yard of Nasser hospital. Photograph: Saher Alghorra/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said. Israeli allegations of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency.
Gaza authorities say over 200 bodies have been recovered so far from a temporary mass grave at what is left of Nasser hospital, which was beseiged and raided by Israeli troops. Residents said Israeli troops fought their way back into an eastern section of Khan Younis in a surprise raid on Monday. Israel’s military has said that it remains operational during the Passover holiday and “is at full readiness in all areas”.
The head of the World Health Organization on Monday again called for safe passage for humanitarian aid missions throughout Gaza after an aid team failed to complete its most recent trip to hard-hit northern Gaza.
Doctors in Gaza have saved a baby from the womb of her mother as she lay dying from head injuries sustained in an in Israeli airstrike. The girl was delivered via an emergency caesarean section at a hospital in Rafah.
Gaza medics pull baby from womb of mother killed in Israeli airstrike – video
At least 34,151 Palestinians have been killed and 77,084 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said on Monday. Israel says that over the same period 260 of its troops have been killed inside the Gaza Strip during its ground operation. 1,582 have been wounded. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
In a resignation letter, Aharon Haliva, the general in command of the IDF’s military intelligence directorate on 7 October, has described the Hamas attack inside southern Israel as a “black day” that he has carried with him ever since. Haliva said he was proud of the way that the men and women of the IDF had responded since that day, but that in failing to prevent the assault his team had not “lived up to the task”. He will stay in post until a replacement is appointed.
Jerusalem police say they have arrested 13 settlers carrying lambs and goats, including one concealed in a shopping bag and another hidden in a baby carriage, as they attempted to access the al-Aqsa mosque compound and sacrifice them as part of a religious ritual.
Two suspects have been arrested after a car rammed into a crowd of ultra-Orthodox men on a Jerusalem street early Monday morning, wounding three.
Israeli forces conducted raids across the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Monday, wounding a man in the Balata refugee camp and detaining at least 25 more according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
Overnight the Israeli armed forces have said that one of their drones, which was staging an incursion inside Lebanon’s airspace, had been taken down by a surface-to-air missile.
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi has arrived in Islamabad on a three-day trip to Pakistan.
An initial account of an exchange between a police officer and an antisemitism campaigner adjacent to a pro-Palestinian demonstration that sparked heavy criticism of London’s police did not show the full picture, a former senior officer has said.
The UN secretary general António Guterres said on Monday that he accepted the recommendations from the Colonna report, about ways to improve Unrwa’s capacity to monitor and address neutrality issues.
“Moving forward, the Secretary-General appeals to all stakeholders to actively support Unrwa, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region,” the UN chief spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement.
The Colonna review makes clear that Unrwa is “indispensable” to Palestinians across the region.
“In the absence of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians, Unrwa remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank,” the review says.
“As such, Unrwa is irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and economic development. In addition, many view Unrwa as a humanitarian lifeline.”
The Colonna review suggests a number of ways that neutrality safeguards for Unrwa’s more than 32,000 staff could be improved, such as expanding the capacity of the internal oversight service, providing more in-person training and more support from donor countries. But it notes that they are already more rigorous than most other comparable institutions.
“The review revealed that Unrwa has established a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles, with emphasis on the principle of neutrality and that it possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities,” it says.
The head of the World Health Organization on Monday called for safe passage for humanitarian aid missions throughout Gaza after an aid team failed to complete its most recent trip to hard-hit northern Gaza.
UN agencies and aid groups say the ongoing hostilities, Israeli military restrictions on goods and the breakdown of order inside Gaza make it increasingly difficult to bring vital aid to much of the territory.
Associated Press reports WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement that a mission by the WHO and its partners on Saturday at Kamal Adwan and Awda hospitals in northern Gaza was only partly completed “due to severe delays at checkpoints and ongoing hostilities.”
“As a result, fuel and medical supplies did not reach Kamal Adwan, for the second time in the last seven days, and partners were also unable to assess needs at Awda to support restoration of services,” he said.
He said the team managed to evacuate four patients from Kamal Adwan, along with their caretakers, including a 9-year-old boy suffering from a head tumor.
“We again call for compliance with international humanitarian law, including access to health care and humanitarian aid for civilians in desperate need of help.” He also called for a ceasefire.
An initial account of an exchange between a police officer and an antisemitism campaigner adjacent to a pro-Palestinian demonstration that sparked heavy criticism of London’s police did not show the full picture, a former senior officer has said.
Footage released by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) last Friday showed its chief executive, Gideon Falter, being told by a police officer that his “openly Jewish” appearance risked antagonising pro-Palestinian marchers. This precipitated claims Falter was prevented from going about his business simply because he was a Jewish man in the vicinity of a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
But a longer version of the same exchange has since emerged on Sky News, showing the officer explaining his concern was that he had seen Falter acting in a way that led him to believe he was trying to provoke a confrontation with marchers.
That fuller account showed “a totally different encounter to the one that Mr Falter has reported”, said the former Scotland Yard chief superintendent Dal Babu on Monday.
His comments came as the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said he retained confidence in the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, but the latter needed to rebuild “confidence and trust” with the Jewish community.
Reuters reports Israeli troops fought their way back into an eastern section of Khan Younis in a surprise raid, residents said on Monday, sending people who had returned to abandoned homes in the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip’s main city fleeing once more.
In the ruins of what had been Nasser hospital, the biggest in southern Gaza, Reuters saw emergency workers in white hazmat suits digging corpses out of the ground with hand tools and a digger truck. The emergency services said 73 more bodies had been found at the site in the past day, raising the number found over the week to 283.
Gaza authorities say the bodies recovered so far are from just one of at least three mass graves they have found at the site.
“We expect to find another 200 bodies at the same mass grave in the coming two days before we will begin working at the two other cemeteries,” Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters.
He accused Israel of carrying out “executions” at the hospital and covering up the crimes by burying bodies with a bulldozer. Israel strongly denies having carried out executions.
People work yesterday to move into a cemetery bodies of Palestinians killed during Israel's military offensive and buried at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters
Here are some images taken in al-Daraj neighbourhood after an Israeli attack in Gaza City via Getty Images.
Buildings are destroyed and surrounding buildings and vehicles were heavily damaged at al-Daraj neighbourhood after Israeli attack, in Gaza City, Gaza. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Buildings are destroyed and surrounding buildings and vehicles were heavily damaged at al-Daraj neighbourhood after Israeli attack, in Gaza City, Gaza on April 22, 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Buildings are destroyed and surrounding buildings and vehicles were heavily damaged at al-Daraj neighbourhood after Israeli attack, in Gaza City, Gaza on April 22, 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Jerusalem police say they have arrested 13 settlers carrying lambs and goats, including one concealed in a shopping bag and another hidden in a baby carriage, as they attempted to access the al-Aqsa mosque compound and sacrifice them in as part of religious ritual.
Police detained the suspects, all aged between 13 and 21, adding that “the animals were confiscated and transferred for necessary veterinary treatment.”
“The Israel Police operates in Jerusalem and across all sectors, along with other security agencies, both overtly and covertly, against any person who tries to shatter the order and act in contradiction to the law and the existing practices of Jerusalem holy sites,” they added.
Jewish religious extremists have increasingly tried to access the al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount, that is holy to both Muslims and Jews. These tensions often increase around the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins at sundown tonight, due to an ancient religious commandment for animal sacrifice, one long abandoned by mainstream groups.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews burn leavened items before the start at sundown of the Jewish Passover holiday in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. Photograph: Debbie Hill/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
Palestinians and Muslim worshippers at al-Aqsa say that Jewish extremists, backed by the Israeli police, have increased their visits to the compound, one of the holiest sites in Islam that is a flashpoint for tensions.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said a large group toured the al-Aqsa mosque compound on Monday, amid a heavy policy presence.
Even so, allowing groups to follow through and sacrifice an animal in the compound is seen as an act so provocative it risks inflaming tensions in the holy city, which is already on edge after months of war in Gaza.
The initial detentions appear unlikely to deter others, as Jewish religious extremists have reportedly circulated plans to bring animals and gather at one of the entrances to the al-Aqsa mosque compound around midnight, in another attempt to storm the compound and conduct ritual sacrifice.
There is a significant Israeli security force presence in Jerusalem after Israeli forces launched a large-scale helicopter-backed operation earlier to catch the perpetrators after the attempted vehicle-ramming. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor
A new western push to help Iranians topple a weak and insecure regime is the key to persuading Israel to support peace and a two state solution in Palestine, the exiled Iranian crown prince has told the Guardian.
Reza Pahlavi, who heads exiled opposition group the National Council of Iran and is seen by supporters as a possible interim leader if the theocratic regime fell, insisted the Iranian regime is weaker than the west realises due to soaring inflation, poverty and the alienation of younger generations in a country where 60% of people are under 30.
Pahlavi, the oldest son of the Iranian Shah that was deposed by the Islamic revolution in 1979, said he doubted Israel will be prepared to make peace while it feels threatened by proxy groups backed by Iran.
He said he offered Iran a vision of coexistence in the region, pointing to the success of countries such as the United Arab Emirates that had chosen that path.
He also praised Israel for showing what he called “commendable” restraint in its strikes inside Iran last week, and said ordinary Iranians had been outraged by Tehran wasting money with missiles that could not even reach their targets in its strikes on Israel.
Pahlavi’s preparedness to support Israel even at a time of tension with Iran is likely to be controversial, as was his visit to Israel a year ago this week. He urged the western countries in the G7 to work explicitly to bring the Iranian regime down saying previous relaxations of the sanctions had not brought a change in behaviour, and only funded its wars.
He called for the proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and a tougher round of sanctions on oil exports. He said many ordinary Iranians did not want an endless conflict with Israel. “Iranans unlike the regime, have a completely different opinion and attitude,” he said. “This is not the Iranian people’s war”.
Pahlavi said he understood Israel’s security concerns, but believed a two state solution for Israel and Palestine was the best option. “Once you eliminate elements that are using terrorism or barbaric terrorism you have a real chance for peace and so ultimately we can reach a stage where Palestinians will be able to live side by side with Israelis,” he said. “Israel will never feel comfortable committing to that if it’s constantly being attacked if it’s constantly facing existential threats.”
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires, showing the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on a building in al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on 22 April. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Palestinians react to an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip on 22 April. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian medic arrives at the site of an Israeli strike on al-Bureij camp. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Here is our video report on medics saving a baby in Gaza via an emergency caesarean section on a Palestinian woman who was killed by an Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah.
Gaza medics pull baby from womb of mother killed in Israeli airstrike – video
In an update on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has said that it remains operational during the Passover holiday and “is at full readiness in all areas”.
It claimed that, in central Gaza, troops “continue to eliminate terrorists” and to “locate, and dismantle terrorist infrastructure”.
In the north of Israel, where it has repeatedly been engaged with anti-Israeli forces firing from inside Lebanon, the IDF said “forces are conducting ambushes, locating, and eliminating terrorists who pose a threat to IDF soldiers and are targeting command centres, weapon storage facilities, and terrorist infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
In a reference to a ramming attack in Jerusalem earlier today, the IDF said “soldiers are currently operating in Hebron, in the residences of the terrorists who carried out the attack earlier today in Jerusalem, and are investigating individuals suspected of assisting them.”
