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)
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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.



Israel Says Two Hezbollah Members Hit in South Lebanon Airstrike

This picture taken from a position in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, shows an Israeli flag (L) on a destroyed building, and a Lebanese flag (R) painted on a damaged building in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on November 25, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This picture taken from a position in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, shows an Israeli flag (L) on a destroyed building, and a Lebanese flag (R) painted on a damaged building in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on November 25, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Israel Says Two Hezbollah Members Hit in South Lebanon Airstrike

This picture taken from a position in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, shows an Israeli flag (L) on a destroyed building, and a Lebanese flag (R) painted on a damaged building in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on November 25, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This picture taken from a position in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, shows an Israeli flag (L) on a destroyed building, and a Lebanese flag (R) painted on a damaged building in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on November 25, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Monday targeting two Hezbollah members, with Lebanese health authorities reporting one person killed and three wounded.

It was the latest in a series of deadly strikes in the area despite a ceasefire agreement that took effect in November after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

"A short while ago, two Hezbollah terrorists who served as observation operatives and directed terrorist activities were struck by the (military) in the area of Yohmor in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement.

The Lebanese health ministry's emergency unit said the "Israeli airstrike on a van in the village of Yohmor... led to one death", according to the official National News Agency (NNA), adding that three other people were wounded.

The agency reported that an Israeli drone had targeted a motorcycle with two riders, but a passing van was also hit by shrapnel, and "fires erupted in it" and a nearby shop.

The attack came a day after NNA and the health ministry reported four deaths in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the military had targeted the south Lebanon town of Ainata after "a stray bullet from a Hezbollah operative's funeral" hit the windshield of a vehicle in the northern Israeli community of Avivim.

"We will not allow shooting from Lebanese territory toward northern communities -- we will respond strongly to any violation of the ceasefire," Katz said.

Israel's military also said "a gunshot hit a parked vehicle in the area of Avivim. No injuries were reported. The shot most likely originated from Lebanese territory."

NNA cited the health ministry as saying that the strike on Ainata "led to the death of two people", after reporting earlier fatalities in Israeli strikes on Mais al-Jabal and Bint Jbeil, also in south Lebanon.

The November 27 truce largely halted the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, which included two months of open war in which Israel sent in ground troops.

But Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.

Under the agreement, Israel had been expected to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems "strategic".

The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.