Army: Rocket Fired from Gaza Lands on Southern Israel

A rocked fired on Israel. Reuters file photo
A rocked fired on Israel. Reuters file photo
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Army: Rocket Fired from Gaza Lands on Southern Israel

A rocked fired on Israel. Reuters file photo
A rocked fired on Israel. Reuters file photo

The Israeli military said Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward southern Israel Saturday evening.

The rocket fell and exploded in an open area, triggering warning sirens in the Nahal Oz community to the east of Gaza City.

There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli military usually responds to such rocket fire with airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of further violence just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The rocket attack comes a day before Israeli and Palestinian officials are set to meet in Egypt in a US-backed effort to defuse violence that has soared especially in the West Bank and east Jerusalem for nearly a year.

The meeting in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh is a follow-up to last month’s meeting in Jordan for the same purpose. However, deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank and Palestinian attacks continued since the Feb. 26 meeting in Aqaba. Twenty-three Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in the ongoing bloodshed since then.



Syrians Recover Human Remains from Site Used by Hezbollah and Other Assad Allies

An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
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Syrians Recover Human Remains from Site Used by Hezbollah and Other Assad Allies

An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)

The Syrian Civil Defense group, known as the White Helmets, uncovered at least 21 corpses as well as incomplete human remains on Wednesday in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of the capital Damascus.

The discovery was made at a site previously used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran-backed Iraqi militias, both allies of deposed President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s civil war.

The site included a field kitchen, a drugstore and a morgue, according to Ammar al-Salmo, an official with the White Helmets, a volunteer organization that operated in areas that were controlled by the opposition.

Rescue teams in white hazmat suits searched the site, located not far from the revered shrine of Sayyida Zeinab. The remains were placed into black bags and loaded onto a truck as bystanders from the neighborhood looked on.

“Some (of the remains) are skeletons, others are incomplete, and there are bags of small bones. We cannot yet determine the number of victims,” al-Salmo said.

“Damascus has become a mass grave,” he said, pointing out the growing reports of war-related graves and burial sites in the capital and other places in Syria.

Iran and Hezbollah provided Assad’s government with military, financial and logistical support during the civil war.