More than 100 bodies were buried Wednesday in a mass grave in Khan Younis, the corpses wrapped in blue plastic sheets fastened with cable ties. Medical workers placed dozens of bodies brought from various areas in northern Gaza, including Shifa Hospital, into a huge trench that was dug using a bulldozer. Workers wearing surgical masks and gloves carried the bodies to the grave and performed funeral prayers.
Quick Read
- Mass Burial in Khan Younis: Over 100 bodies were interred in a mass grave in Khan Younis, Gaza. The deceased, wrapped in blue plastic sheets, were brought from various locations including Shifa Hospital.
- Funeral Process: Medical workers performed the burial process, with workers wearing protective gear carrying the bodies and conducting funeral prayers.
- Aid Trucks Ready for Gaza: International aid groups have prepared thousands of trucks with supplies, awaiting a pause in the fighting between Hamas and Israel to deliver aid to Gaza, particularly northern areas.
- Uncertainty Over Aid and Hostage Release: Details about the delivery of humanitarian aid and the release of hostages from Israel are still unclear.
- Red Cross and Red Crescent Preparedness: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies expressed readiness to scale up aid once the deal’s details are finalized.
- Aid Delivery Bottlenecks: Deliveries of humanitarian aid into Gaza have faced challenges, including intense Israeli inspections.
- Iranian-Backed Group’s Warning to the U.S.: An Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, threatened to expand its targeting of U.S. assets in response to U.S. airstrikes.
- U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq: U.S. warplanes targeted Kataib Hezbollah facilities in Iraq in retaliation for the use of ballistic missiles against U.S. forces.
- Casualties from U.S. Strikes: Militia officials in Iraq reported that the U.S. strikes killed eight members of Kataib Hezbollah.
- Escalating Strikes and Tensions: There has been an increase in strikes and tensions since mid-October, with numerous rocket and missile attacks on U.S. facilities in the region, resulting in injuries to U.S. service members.
The Associated Press has the story:
Mass Grave for 100 Palestinians dug in Southern Gaza; Aid trucks await pause in fighting
Newslooks- KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP)
More than 100 bodies were buried Wednesday in a mass grave in Khan Younis, the corpses wrapped in blue plastic sheets fastened with cable ties.
Medical workers placed dozens of bodies brought from various areas in northern Gaza, including Shifa Hospital, into a huge trench that was dug using a bulldozer.
Workers wearing surgical masks and gloves carried the bodies to the grave and performed funeral prayers.
ISRAELI STRIKES CONTINUE
An airstrike overnight hit a residential building in the southern town of Khan Younis, killing 17 people, including children, said Ahmad Balouny, a relative of the deceased. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of two children pulled from the rubble.
Outside Khan Younis, workers dug a mass grave for 111 bodies that Israeli authorities handed over after troops took them from Shifa Hospital and other parts of northern Gaza. Israeli troops took the bodies apparently for DNA analysis amid the search for hostages in the north.
Strikes also leveled buildings in the Nusseirat refugee camp and the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, which have been heavily bombarded in recent days. The city’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said 128 bodies were brought in overnight after strikes.
“There’s no safe place,” said Umm Rami al-Jabali, who survived a strike in Deir al-Balah. “Inside isn’t safe, outside isn’t safe.”
In northern Gaza, about 60 bodies and 200 people wounded by heavy fighting were brought into the Kamal Adwan Hospital overnight, hospital director Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout told Al-Jazeera television Wednesday.
Over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced in the war. Many, if not most, will be unable to return home because of the vast damage and the continued presence of Israeli troops in the north.
The truce deal promises an increase of aid to the south, bringing some relief to hundreds of thousands who have struggled to find food and water. Israel has barred imports to Gaza since the start of the war, except for a trickle of aid entering through Egypt’s Rafah crossing.
A Qatari statement said the cease-fire would allow a “larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid,” including fuel. But it gave no details on actual quantities.
Humanitarian aid groups operating in Gaza criticized the cease-fire, saying the truce was too short and the Rafah crossing’s capacity was insufficient to deliver enough aid to meet the urgent demand.
At a U.N. school-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah — packed with families living in classrooms or ramshackle shelters set up in the yard — Amal Mahmoud said her family from northern Gaza was dispersed across the territory.
“We don’t like this truce. We want to return to our homes, to our lands,” she said.
HOSTAGE DEAL COULD DIVIDE ISRAELIS
The return of hostages could lift spirits in Israel, where their plight has gripped the country. Families of the hostages — who include babies and older adults — have staged mass demonstrations to pressure the government to bring them home.
But they could also find themselves divided as some hostages are freed and others not.
Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother, sister-in-law and two nephews — aged 4 and 10 months — are among the captives, said the deal puts the families in an “inhumane” situation.
“Who will be released, who won’t? Will the kids be freed? Will they be freed with their mothers or not?” she asked, speaking to The Associated Press before the deal was announced. “No matter which way it happens, there will still be families that will remain worried and sad and angry.”
AID TRUCKS AT GAZA BORDER AWAIT PAUSE IN FIGHTING
GENEVA — International aid groups that have lined up thousands of aid trucks for Gaza say they’re ready to move quickly to send in food, water and other supplies if a pause in fighting between Hamas and Israel takes hold as hoped on Thursday.
Details remain unclear about both the mechanics of getting more aid for beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza and the possible release of hostages kidnapped from Israel whose families have desperately sought their release.
The aid groups say a key ambition will be to get help to northern Gaza, which has been largely inaccessible to humanitarian shipments and where nearly all hospitals have stopped working amid a blistering military campaign by Israeli forces.
“The entire humanitarian sector is ready to scale up once everything is set,” said Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, referring to the fine print of the announced deal.
Della Longa lamented “bottlenecks” that have confounded the deliveries of some humanitarian aid – though not nearly enough – into Gaza. He said IFRC hopes that a deal would include provisions to allow for a “faster track” of aid shipments.
The only route for international humanitarian aid into Gaza since Oct. 7 has been through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt, and planeloads of supplies have been flown into the nearby Egyptian city of El-Arish – and trucks have queued up near Gaza.
Intense Israeli inspections of trucks and cargo have slowed entry into Gaza.
IRANIAN-BACKED MILITANT GROUP VOWS TO EXPAND CONFLICT IF US AIRSTRIKES CONTINUE
WASHINGTON — A major Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq has warned it may strike additional U.S. targets after U.S. warplanes killed multiple militants in response to the first use of short-range ballistic missiles against U.S. forces at Al-Asad Air Base earlier this week.
U.S. fighter jets struck a Kataib Hezbollah operations center and a Kataib Hezbollah command and control node south of Baghdad on Tuesday, two defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide additional sensitive details of the attacks.
There were Kataib Hezbollah personnel at both sites at the time of the strikes, but the officials said they could not yet confirm whether anyone there was killed.
Militia officials in Iraq said the attack had killed eight Kataib Hezbollah members.
Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement Wednesday that it was considering “expanding the scope of targets” if the U.S. military continues with its strikes, adding that the attack “will not go unpunished.”
The dangerous back-and-forth strikes have escalated since Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Syria began striking U.S. facilities on Oct. 17, the date that a blast at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds. The attacks have continued unabated since, with at least 66 rocket and missile attacks hitting U.S. facilities and wounding at least 62 service members.
