Emotions Run High as Families Search a Mass Grave in Northern Gaza 

General view of rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
General view of rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Emotions Run High as Families Search a Mass Grave in Northern Gaza 

General view of rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)
General view of rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Using shovels and their bare hands, Palestinian families exhumed dozens of bodies from a muddy mass grave beside Shifa Hospital.

They hope to move their loved ones' remains, wrapped in blankets or sheets, for a dignified burial elsewhere. But first they have to find them.

“I’m here to search for my son,” said Soha al-Sharif, breaking down in tears. “He wasn’t unidentified. His name was written on his wrist.”

Gaza's Civil Defense said 48 bodies were unearthed as of Thursday afternoon, including 10 unidentified people. The grave has over 180 bodies.

Abu al-Abid, a Gaza City resident, was visibly distressed as he searched for his pregnant daughter's remains. He says she was killed Jan. 13 by an Israeli airstrike that killed 25 of her family members, including her three children.

A shattered hospital Shifa was once the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip but is severely damaged, with its walls collapsed and scoured by flames and bullet holes. The mass grave is in a courtyard strewn with trash, rubble, and placards bearing the names of those buried.

Mohamed al-Meghayar, a Civil Defense member, told The Associated Press that around 50 of the mass grave’s 180 bodies are unidentified.

Mohamed Abu Salmiyah, Shifa Hospital’s general manager, told AP that the bodies need to be relocated because staffers want to rebuild field hospitals.

Israel says Hamas fighters operated in hospitals during the war, which nullified the protections granted hospitals under international law.



Trump Warns Iran It Will Face ‘Consequences’ of Further Attacks from Yemen’s Houthis

A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Trump Warns Iran It Will Face ‘Consequences’ of Further Attacks from Yemen’s Houthis

A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Monday explicitly linked the actions of Yemen's Houthi militias to their main benefactor, Iran, warning Tehran would “suffer the consequences” for further attacks by the militants.

The comments by Trump on his Truth Social website escalate his administration's new campaign of airstrikes targeting the militias, which killed at least 53 people this weekend alone and appear poised to continue. Meanwhile, Iran continues to weigh how to respond to a letter Trump sent them last week trying to jump-start negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Houthi supporters themselves rallied in several cities Monday after the strikes, vowing revenge against America and Israel over blocking aid to the Gaza Strip after its war on Hamas there.

“The Yemeni position is an irreversible position (regarding Gaza), so do whatever you (Americans) want, for we are men who fear no one but God," said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi leader who spoke to the demonstration in Yemen's Houthi-held capital, Sanaa.

Describing the Houthis as “sinister mobsters and thugs,” Trump warned any attack by the militias would be met with “great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there.”

“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,” Trump alleged in his post. “They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, 'Intelligence.'”

It's unclear what sparked Trump's post. However, the head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sought to separate the Houthis' actions from those of Tehran this weekend. The Houthis also launched drones and missiles targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, though none reached the ship as it continues flight operations in the region.

Iran did not immediately comment on the post.

“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump added.

The Houthis attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January this year when a ceasefire began in Gaza.

The Houthis claimed there had been additional US airstrikes overnight, though American officials did not immediately acknowledge them.

World Food Program warehouse raided by Houthis

In Saada province, the Houthis' stronghold, the militias raided a warehouse run by the World Food Program. A member of Yemen's legitimate government first reported the Houthis had been taking supplies from the facility without the WFP's permission in the aftermath of the US airstrikes. The United Nations agency later acknowledged the Houthis' actions to The Associated Press.

“WFP regrets the de facto authorities' decision to seize some of the commodities,” it said. “These commodities were intended for the most vulnerable food-insecure families. Only WFP and its partners have the authority to distribute them and ensure they reach the intended recipients.”

Yemen, at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa back in 2014, has been on the precipice of famine for years. But the UN in February suspended its operations in Saada over security concerns following the detentions by the Houthis of dozens of UN workers and others in recent months. A day later, the WFP announced one of its staffers died while imprisoned by the Houthis.