A bloody start to the Eid holiday – war on Gaza Day 541

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Thirty-three Palestinians, including 13 children, were killed and several others injured since early Sunday in Israeli airstrikes across several areas in the Gaza Strip on the first day of Eid al-Fitr. Attacks targeted homes, a tent shelter, and civilian vehicles in Gaza City, Jabalia in the north, and Khan Younis in the south.

One person was killed and five others were injured Sunday in US airstrikes in the northern part of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, according to the Houthi-run Ministry of Health.

Red Crescent recovers bodies of missing paramedics, civil defense workers killed by Israel in Gaza’s Rafah

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced on 30 March the retrieval of the bodies of 14 crew members killed by Israeli forces while under siege in Rafah’s Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood.

Rescuers from OCHA, the Red Cross, and the Civil Defense managed to reach the neighborhood Sunday to search for the crew members, who had been missing for eight days. The bodies of eight PRCS paramedics, five Civil Defense crew members, and the body of a UN staffer were successfully retrieved, PRCS said in a press release.

According to the Red Crescent and the Gaza Health Ministry, some of the workers were found with their hands bound. The bodies showed signs of “head and chest injuries” and were “buried in a deep pit to prevent their discovery.”

The rescue teams continue to search for other bodies in the neighborhood, the statement added. Three PRCS first responders and one Civil Defense paramedic remain missing.

“The Palestine Red Crescent Society was devastated today by the killing of eight of its paramedics in Rafah, targeted by the Israeli army while performing their humanitarian duties in response to a call to aid the wounded and injured following an Israeli strike in the Hashashin area of Rafah, Gaza Strip,” the PRCS said in a statement.

“The ninth paramedic remains missing and is believed to have possibly been detained.”

The crew members went missing on 23 March after being mobilized to Tal al-Sultan to assist Palestinians injured by Israel’s bombing and ground assaults—those who managed to escape the onslaught reported executions of many Palestinians by Israeli troops.

On 29 March, the Israeli military acknowledged attacking ambulances and fire trucks in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Officials claim the troops initially opened fire “toward Hamas vehicles.”

“A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops … The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles, eliminating a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists,” the army statement reads.

“After an initial inquiry, it was determined that some of the suspicious vehicles … were ambulances and fire trucks,” it adds.

On Friday, PRCS members and UN staff who made it to the site of the massacre reported finding the body of the mission leader, Anwar Abdel Hamid al-Attar, “in dismembered pieces.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday did prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr atop the rubble of destroyed mosques, in overcrowded shelters, and beside the ruins of their homes, as Israel’s ongoing war left no room for traditional celebrations.

Israeli airstrikes continued through the early hours of Sunday, targeting various areas across the besieged enclave, resulting in casualties.

Despite the destruction, displaced Palestinians gathered amid artillery shelling and heavy gunfire from Israeli forces to perform the prayers, recite takbirat (chants glorifying Allah), and exchange greetings for Eid, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. But the holiday’s usual festive traditions, such as sharing sweets, giving gifts to children, and celebrating in public squares, were absent.

in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, displaced Palestinians did Eid prayers inside a makeshift shelter at a school housing families from the city’s eastern areas.

Eyewitnesses reported that prayers and takbirat were interrupted by heavy gunfire from Israeli army positions stationed east of the city.

Only seven Hamas fighters named among 436 Palestinians killed by Israel in ‘historic’ 18 March attacks

Israeli media reported on 29 March that the Israeli army launched 80 airstrikes on Gaza in the early hours of March 18, killing nearly 300 women and children, while naming only seven Hamas resistance fighters and leaders killed in the attacks.

After the attack, in which Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli media celebrated, claiming that hundreds of Palestinian resistance fighters were killed, rather than women and children.

Israeli newspaper Maariv claimed that “more than 300 terrorists were liquidated within a few minutes… thanks to extraordinary cooperation between the Shin Bet [security service] and the air force.” The Hebrew paper described it as “one of the greatest preemptive operations in military history.”

“Last night,” the paper gushed, “some 300 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists got a surprise visit from air force bombs that landed on their heads. The sortie was perfect.”

And Channel 12 News reported the attacks with the headline, “Hamas taken by surprise, 400 militants killed.”

However, according to Haaretz, the official Israeli military announcements contain the names of only seven members of Hamas who were targeted and killed in that night’s raid.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported 436 killed in the attack, among them 183 children, 94 women, and 34 people over the age of 65. 

Trump Threatens Iran With ‘Bombing’ If Nuclear Deal Is Not Reached

President Trump on Sunday threatened to bomb Iran if a deal isn’t reached on the country’s civilian nuclear program.

“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview.

The president has made similar threats toward Iran, but Sunday’s marked the most explicit one yet, and it comes as the US is sending more bombers to the region and pounding Yemen with daily airstrikes. Trump also said the US could hit Iran with “secondary tariffs” if a deal isn’t reached.

Trump’s threat comes after US intelligence agencies said in their annual threat assessment that there’s no evidence Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.