Iran and Hezbollah vowed Tuesday to respond to a strike widely attributed to Israel that demolished Tehran’s consulate in Damascus and killed seven people, including two Iranian generals.
Iran’s state TV reported Tuesday that the country’s Supreme National Security Council, a key decision-making body, met late Monday and decided on a “required” response to the strike. The report said the meeting was chaired by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, but provided no further details.
In an online statement, Raisi blamed Israel for the attack, saying the “cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”
“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” his statement added.
It was not clear if Iran would respond itself, risking a dangerous confrontation with Israel and its ally the United States, or if it would continue to rely on proxies, including the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
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While Israel does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed terror groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade. The Israel Defense Forces says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
Emergency and security personnel search the rubble at the site of strikes which hit a building annexed to the Iranian embassy in Syria’s capital Damascus, on April 1, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA/ AFP)
The airstrike in Syria killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi’s deputy, Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.
Zahedi was reportedly responsible for the IRGC’s operations in Syria and Lebanon, for Iranian militias there, and for ties with Hezbollah, and thus the most senior commander of Iranian forces in the two countries.
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Hezbollah said Tuesday that Zahedi played a crucial role in helping “develop and advance the work” of the group in Lebanon. “This crime will certainly not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge,” the terror group said in a statement.
Israel said it had no comment on the attack in Syria, although a military spokesman blamed Iran for a drone attack early Monday against a naval base in Eilat in southern Israel.
Faced with ongoing attacks by the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Shiite militias throughout the Middle East in the wake of Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, which sparked the war in Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iran-linked terror targets in Syria, killing numerous IRGC operatives, as well as members of Hezbollah and other Iranian proxy groups.
Israel has grown increasingly impatient with the daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, which have escalated in recent days, and warned of the possibility of a full-fledged war. Houthi rebels have also been launching long-range missiles toward Israel, including on Monday.
Iranian protesters chant slogans as they hold up posters of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone attack in 2020, during an anti-Israeli gathering to condemn killing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria, at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran’s official news agency IRNA said Tuesday that Iran relayed an important message to the United States late Monday and that it called for a meeting of the UN Security Council. The message to Washington was delivered through a Swiss envoy in Tehran; Switzerland looks after US interests in Iran.
IRNA said Iran holds the United States responsible for the strike, though Axios reported Tuesday that the US had told Tehran that it “had no involvement” in or prior knowledge of the attack on the consulate in Syria. A senior US official quoted in the report said the message had been “communicated directly” to Iran.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said the incident would be investigated in the “Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism”, which his statement called an “independent, professional, and expert body”, without giving further details.
He said he had spoken to the WCK founder, chef José Andrés, and expressed his deepest condolences.
“We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need,” he said in the statement.
The strike hit an aid convoy, killing seven people working with World Central Kitchen (WCK), a charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza.
They were delivering desperately needed food aid that had been brought in by sea. The WCK said Israel was behind the airstrike.
Numerous western officials and ministers have demanded an explanation for the deaths after WCK said those killed were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.
Cyprus’s president called for an immediate probe into the killing of seven aid workers in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, saying the US- based World Central Kitchen charity they were members of was a “crucial partner” in its initiative to get aid to the enclave by sea.
“We need to double down on efforts to get aid to Gaza,” Nikos Christodoulides said, after a meeting with the European parliament president, Roberta Metsola.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said the incident would be investigated in the “Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism”, which his statement called an “independent, professional, and expert body”, without giving further details.
He said he had spoken to the WCK founder, chef José Andrés, and expressed his deepest condolences.
“We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need,” he said in the statement.
The strike hit an aid convoy, killing seven people working with World Central Kitchen (WCK), a charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza.
They were delivering desperately needed food aid that had been brought in by sea. The WCK said Israel was behind the airstrike.
Numerous western officials and ministers have demanded an explanation for the deaths after WCK said those killed were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the destruction of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza amounted to “ripping the heart out” of the health system of the enclave.
“Destroying al-Shifa means ripping the heart out of the health system,” WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“It was the place people go to for the kind of care that a really good health system provides, that we in all our societies expect to have should we be in need.”
The Hamas-run Gaza media office said Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians around the hospitaland put the medical facility out of function.
The Israeli military said it had killed and detained hundreds of gunmen in clashes in the area of the hospital, and seized weaponry and intelligence documents.
The president of the city of Przemysl, in southeastern Poland, identified the Polish volunteer who was killed in the Israeli airstrike in Gaza as Damian Sobol.
“Yesterday, our colleague, resident of Przemysl, volunteer, member of the World Central Kitchen team – Damian Sobol, was killed in a rocket attack by Israeli forces on a humanitarian convoy delivering food in the Gaza Strip,” he wrote on Facebook.
“There are no words to describe what people who knew this fantastic guy feel at this moment … May he rest in peace.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski told reporters Poland was checking reports of the death of the Polish volunteer.
“We are currently urgently verifying this information,” he said. “We have asked the Israeli authorities, security forces and the Israeli armed forces for explanations.”
Deputy justice minister Arkadiusz Myrcha told state news channel TVP Info there would be an investigation into the incident.
“There is no exception here, of course every death must be explained and such proceedings should be initiated here,” he said.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will hold talks in Paris on Tuesday after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Blinken arrived in the French capital before heading to Brussels for a Nato ministerial meeting on Wednesday.
France on Monday proposed a draft UN security council resolution that seeks options for possible UN monitoring of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and proposals to help the Palestinian Authority assume responsibilities.
The EU has called for a “thorough investigation” into the deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza bringing food from the World’s Central Kitchen to starving Palestinians.
“We are mourning with the families and friends of the @WCKitchen humanitarian aid workers who lost their lives in Gaza,” the European Commission said in a post on X.
“Humanitarian aid workers must always be protected, in line with international humanitarian law. We call for a thorough investigation into this tragedy.”
The EU, along with the US and Cyprus, were instrumental in establishing a maritime corridor to bring aid to Gaza across the Mediterranean.
A pilot delivery with a ship operated by a Spanish search and rescue group, Open Arms, taking 200 tonnes of food provided by the charity, World Central Kitchen, arrived in Gaza in the second week in March.
Another US-based charity, American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), which helps provide emergency relief for Palestinians, has told BBC News that it is also freezing its operations in Gaza, following on from the World Central Kitchen’s (WCK) announcement earlier.
“Anera and WCK are pausing our Gaza operations. Together, Anera and WCK provide some 2 million meals a week in Gaza,” Sean Carroll, the charity’s CEO, said.
Asked about the impact the decision to suspend food provision would have on Palestinian people, whom face a looming famine, Caroll said: “The occupying power has an obligation under international law to provide for the people under occupation.”
Anera, which has been working closely with WCK in recent months, says on its website that it works on the ground with partners in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.
It said that its medical team helped treat hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday and Monday, providing displaced people free medication in the process.
The seven WCK aid workers were killed by a suspected Israeli airstrike fired on their convoy south of Deir al-Balah late on Monday. Medical officials said the group had been helping to deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza that had arrived hours earlier by ship.
While Israel has claimed it is allowing aid into Gaza, senior UN, US and other international officials, as well as NGOs, have accused the country of obstructing life-saving aid to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
The UN said last week that famine was “ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza” and that the health system was collapsing owing to the continuing hostilities and “access constraints”.
Here is the full statement issued by Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, on the death of Lalzawmi Frankcom, the Australian aid worker killed by an Israeli military airstrike in Gaza.
The statement reads:
It is with overwhelming sadness that the Australian Government confirms the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza.
The tributes flowing for Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom tell the story of a life dedicated to the service of others, including her fellow Australians during natural disasters.
Her tireless work to improve the lives of others should never have cost Ms Frankcom her own.
The government expresses its deepest sympathies to her family and loved ones, just as we mourn all civilian deaths in this conflict.
The department of foreign affairs and trade is providing consular assistance to her family in Australia. The death of any aid worker is outrageous and unacceptable.
Throughout this conflict, Australia has called for restraint, for the protection of civilians and safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance.
The Australian government condemns this strike. The government has made representations to the Netanyahu government and seeks a thorough and expeditious review. We expect full accountability for these deaths.
We repeat our demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and that international humanitarian law be upheld.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was “horrified” by the deaths of the seven World Central Kitchen staff members who were reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
“Horrified by the death of seven humanitarian workers from @WCKitchen in an airstrike in Gaza. I have just conveyed to @chefjoseandres my sincere condolences and all my love and support for him and his team,” he wrote on X.
“Your solidarity, altruism and commitment to those who need it most is a source of pride. The government of Spain is with you.”
Chef José Andrés, the founder of the WCK charity, was born in Spain and is a naturalised US citizen.
He said on X that the charity “lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF airstrike in Gaza”.
“I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family. These are people … angels … I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless … they are not nameless.
He said the Israeli government needed to “stop this indiscriminate killing”.
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has vowed revenge after Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps
“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” Raisi said on his office’s website.
“Day by day, we have witnessed the strengthening of the Resistance Front and the disgust and hatred of free nations towards the illegitimate nature of (Israel). This cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”
Iran said that several long-serving diplomats were killed alongside Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Haji Rahimi. It was also reported that Brig Gen Hossein Amirollah, the chief of general staff for the al-Quds force in Syria and Lebanon, was among the victims.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were killed in the attack.
Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, said Iran’s response to the strike would be “at the same magnitude and harshness”.
The strike follows a marked increase in violence between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanon boundary since Hamas’s 7 October attack, as well as the resumption of violent attacks by Iranian-backed militia on US and Israeli positions in Iraq.
The Polish foreign ministry has expressed its condolences to the family of the Polish volunteer who was among the seven aid workers killed in Gaza.
“We express our sincerest condolences to the family of the volunteer who provided aid to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry wrote in a post on X.
“Poland does not agree to the lack of compliance with international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers.”
The World Central Kitchen said earlier that those killed in the Israeli airstrike were “from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine” and announced that it was “pausing our operations in the region” in response.
As we reported earlier, a British national was, according to the World Central Kitchen (WCK), among the seven aid workers killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign Office said on Tuesday morning: “We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Gaza and are urgently seeking further information.”
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, told the BBC that the UK government was “very concerned” over the reports and that it was “worrying” that the WCK had suspended its work in Gaza.
She said:
We haven’t had it confirmed yet, but we are very, very concerned by the situation.
We do know that we’ve urged Israel to do more to protect civilians, but also to allow aid to get into Gaza.
But we haven’t yet had this confirmed and I think the IDF are reviewing this, probably as we speak …
One of the key things is trying to ensure we get more aid into Gaza, so if one of the charities working on the ground has suspended, then that’s obviously deeply concerning.
Our thoughts would go to everybody affected.
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, has shared his condolences over the killing of the seven aid workers in Gaza.
He said that nowhere else are so many aid workers killed and called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict.
Unrwa, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, which is the main UN agency in Gaza, and other aid groups have said sending truck convoys to northern Gaza has been too dangerous because of the Israeli military’s failure to ensure safe passage.
In its latest report, Unrwa said that 173 of its workers have been killed in Gaza. The figure does not include workers for other aid organisations.
The bodies of the aid workers have been taken to a hospital in the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, according to an Associated Press reporter at the hospital.
The bodies of the foreign aid workers will reportedly be evacuated out of Gaza and the Palestinian driver’s body will be handed to his family in Rafah for burial.
Cyprus’ foreign ministry has offered condolences to the family and friends of the World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in an Israeli airstrike and has demanded a swift investigation into the incident.
Cypriot authorities have established, in cooperation with Israel, a maritime corridor to facilitate pre-screened cargoes arriving directly in Gaza.
A second WCK maritime aid shipment carrying 332 tonnes of food was due to arrive in Gaza early this week.
Here’s a rundown on the latest key developments:
The food aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) says seven of its team members were killed in what it called an Israeli military strike in central Gaza on Monday.
The seven were from Australia, Poland, the UK, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine, WCK said.
The workers were travelling in two armoured cars branded with the charity’s logo in Deir al-Balah, according to WCK. It said it was immediately “pausing” its operations in the region.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident”.
Footage showed the bodies of five of the WCK workers at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah. Several of them wore protective body armour with the charity’s logo.
Medical officials said the group had been helping to deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza that had arrived hours early by ship.
Australia’s prime minister said the death of an Australian aid worker among those killed was “completely unacceptable” and the governmentdemanded “full accountability”. Lalzawmi Frankcom died “doing the work she loves”, her grieving family said.
The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, plans to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid a US push for progress toward normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Talks on normalisation had been put on ice in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attack and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, but conversations have resumed in recent months.
Reuters reports a US official said Sullivan planned talks with the crown prince to check in on the issue but did not expect a major breakthrough. Sullivan would consult broadly on a number of matters, a second US official said, adding:
He has not been to Saudi Arabia in some time and there’s lots to discuss.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said almost two weeks ago that the US and Saudi Arabia had made “good progress” in talks on normalising ties between the kingdom and Israel, without providing a timeline for concluding a deal.
As part of a normalisation deal, Saudi Arabia wants to secure a mutual defence pact with Washington and get US support for its civil nuclear program.
Three students have been shot and wounded in a shooting at a school in Finland, police say.
All those involved were aged 12, police said - including the suspected attacker, who has been detained and taken into custody.
Officers were called to the incident at Viertola school in Vantaa just after 7am UK time.
The victims were taken to hospital, a police spokesperson told Reuters news agency. No further details were given.
Image:The shooting took place at Viertola school in Vantaa, a
suburb of the Finnish capital Helsinki
The school has two sites, Liljatie and Jokiranta. The shooting took place at the Jokiranta campus.
Finnish broadcaster MTV Uutiset reported emergency services - including armed police officers - were at the scene.
Some of the children reportedly hid during the attack, while others who had been contacted by their parents on mobile phones said they saw what happened.
"The immediate danger is over," said the school's principal Sari Laasila.
Image:The pupils injured in the attack were taken to hospital. Pic: Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva via Reuters
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the shooting was deeply shocking.
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"My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and the other students and staff," he said on X.
"The day started in a horrifying way. There has been a shooting incident at the Viertola school in Vantaa. I can only imagine the pain and worry that many families are experiencing at the moment. The suspected perpetrator has been caught," interior minister Mari Rantanen posted on the social media platform.
A witness told MTV Uutiset the suspect was arrested just before 10am in an area of Helsinki called Siltakylantie - a 50-minute walk from the school.
They said police stopped a young person - who dropped an object that looked like a weapon on the ground and knelt down.
Image:Parents gather outside the school. Pic: Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva via Reuters
The school, situated on the outskirts of the Finnish capital Helsinki, has around 800 students from first to ninth grade - aged seven to 16.
Local residents have been asked to stay away from the school which has been cordoned off by police.
Previous school shootings in Finland have led to the country tightening its gun legislation.
In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed six students, the school nurse, the principal, and himself using a handgun at Jokela High School, near Helsinki.
Matti Saari, another student, opened fire at a school in Kauhajoki, in northwest Finland, in 2008. He killed nine students and one male staff member before turning the gun on himself.
In 2010, Finland introduced an aptitude test for all firearms licence applicants - and set a new minimum age of 20, up from 18.
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By Jeremy Bowen, International Editor, and David Gritten
BBC News in northern Israel and London
Iran's Revolutionary Guards says seven officers have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria's capital, Damascus.
Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the elite Quds Force, and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, his deputy, were named among the dead.
Iran and Syria's governments condemned the attack, which destroyed a building next door to the Iranian embassy.
The Israeli military said it did not comment on foreign media reports.
However, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran and allied armed groups which are armed, funded and trained by the Revolutionary Guards.
The Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Syria.
But Monday's attack will be seen as a serious escalation.
The Israelis appear to be testing the resolve of the Iranians and their allies and signalling that they are serious about increasing pressure on their enemies.
The Israelis are looking at the fact that both Iran and Hezbollah have not been pushing as hard as some might expect. Now they will see if Iran and Hezbollah are going to push back.
There will be a response, but it may not be the one people expect. Rather than missiles, it may be some sort of cyber-attack.
Reuters
Syria's defence ministry said Israeli aircraft targeted the Iranian consulate building, which was on a highway in the western Mezzeh district of Damascus, from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights at about 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Monday.
Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles they launched, but others made it through and "destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside", the ministry added.
The ministry said work was under way to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from beneath the rubble, without saying how many casualties there were or naming any of them.
Photos and videos from the scene showed smoke and dust rising from the remains of the collapsed multi-storey building. The Iranian embassy next door did not appear to have sustained any significant damage.
The Iranian ambassador, Hossein Akbari, said Israeli F-35 fighter jets "brutally targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy, along with Iran's military attaches". He told Iranian state TV that between five and seven people were killed, including some diplomats.
Later, the Revolutionary Guards put out a statement saying that seven of its officers were killed, including Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, whom it described as commanders and "senior military advisers".
Iranian media said Zahedi, 63, was a senior figure in the Quds Force - the Revolutionary Guards' overseas operations arm - and served as commander in Lebanon and Syria between 2008 and 2016. Haji-Rahimi was meanwhile identified as Zahedi's deputy.
Zahedi is one of the most high-profile Iranian figures believed to have been killed by Israel in the country's long campaign of targeted assassinations.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported that eight people were killed - a high-ranking leader of the Quds Force, two Iranian advisers and five members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said he strongly condemned what he called "this heinous terrorist attack", adding that it had killed "a number of innocent people".
In a telephone conversation with Mr Mekdad, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian described the strike as "a violation of all international obligations and conventions" and "blamed the consequences of this action on the Zionist regime", the Iranian foreign ministry said.
He also "stressed the need for a serious response by the international community".
A White House spokeswoman said US President Joe Biden was aware of the reports.
In a briefing to journalists on Monday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said an apparent drone attack on a naval base in the southern Israeli city of Eilat was "a very serious incident". The drone was "made and directed by Iran", he said.
This attack followed suspected Israeli strikes on Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo last Friday, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed 53 people, including 38 Syrian soldiers and seven members of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
In January, another strike in Mezzeh that was blamed on Israel killed five senior Revolutionary Guards and several Syrian security personnel.
Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out strikes in Syria to combat what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment", as well as shipments of Iranian weapons to allied groups which it proscribes as terrorist organisations.
Iran has said Revolutionary Guards have been sent to Syria to "advise" President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's civil war, but it has denied they have been involved in combat or established bases.
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By Yolande Knell & Sean Seddon
BBC News, in Jerusalem and London
Israel's military has pulled out of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after a two-week raid that has left most of the major medical complex in ruins.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said dozens of bodies had been found and locals said nearby areas were razed.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had killed 200 "terrorists", detained hundreds more and found weapons and intelligence "throughout the hospital".
The IDF said it raided al-Shifa because Hamas had regrouped there.
The two-week operation saw intense fighting and Israeli air strikes in nearby buildings and the surrounding area.
Wards were attacked because Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were using them as a base, the IDF said, accusing them of fighting inside medical departments, setting off explosives and burning hospital buildings.
Images published following the Israeli withdrawal showed Palestinians walking near the charred main buildings with chunks of wall missing and carrying bodies wrapped in blankets. Graphic photos showed corpses partially exposed on the churned ground.
The health ministry said dozens of bodies, some decomposed, had been found in and around the medical complex, which was now "completely out of service".
A doctor told AFP news agency more than 20 bodies had been recovered, some crushed by withdrawing vehicles.
Reuters
A spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas-run civil emergency service said Israeli forces had used bulldozers to dig up the grounds of the complex and exhume buried bodies.
The Hamas government media office said Israeli forces had killed 400 Palestinians in al-Shifa and the surrounding area, including a female doctor and her son, who was also a doctor. Israel has not yet commented.
The IDF said its troops killed 200 "terrorists" and detained more than 900 people, of whom more than 500 were subsequently found to be affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - which Israel, the UK and other countries proscribe as terrorist organisations. The suspects had been transferred to the intelligence services for further interrogation, it added.
The IDF said "forces found large quantities of weapons, intelligence documents throughout the hospital, encountered terrorists in close-quarters battles and engaged in combat while avoiding harm to the medical staff and patients".
An IDF spokesman said more than 6,000 people had been in the hospital complex, mostly civilians, at the start of the raid.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday night that 21 patients had died, with patients moved a number of times and held without medical care.
Dr Amira al-Safady at al-Shifa told the BBC's Gaza Lifeline radio that about 16 people who were in the intensive care unit died after being moved, because she and other doctors no longer had the equipment to treat them.
Three days later, troops told medical staff to bury them outside, she said.
The IDF has been asked for comment. It says troops set up temporary infrastructure for medical treatment at al-Shifa, with video showing troops setting up a small number of beds.
Reuters
Patient Barra al-Shawish told Reuters news agency that the Israeli troops had allowed in a "very small amount of food". "No treatment, no medicine, nothing, and bombing for 24 hours that didn't stop and immense destruction in the hospital," he said.
Some of the patients were being moved to al-Ahli hospital, about 3km (1.8 miles) to the south-east, a medic at al-Shifa told Reuters.
Gaza's hospitals have been a main focus of the current war, with thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter from Israeli bombardment in their grounds and Israeli forces storming the facilities because they say Hamas fighters are present there.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian health infrastructure as a cover to launch its operations, which the group denies.
Two weeks ago, it took hundreds of Israeli forces just a few hours to approach and enter the Gaza Strip's largest hospital. That was in marked contrast to their first controversial raid there in November, when it took several weeks for large numbers of tanks and vehicles, backed by heavy air strikes, to close in on the site.
For supporters of the Israeli military, this has been evidence of the gains it has made during the war and its tactical success, launching a surprise attack on the enemy to strike it hard. An IDF spokesman previously referred to the operation as "one of the most successful of the war so far" because of the intelligence gleaned, as well as numbers killed and detained.
EPA
However, some commentators suggest the second al-Shifa raid highlights flaws in Israel's military strategy for the war. They argue that it shows the ease with which Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters were able to regroup after Israel pulled its forces out of northern Gaza and the urgent need to come up with a convincing post-war plan to govern the territory.
On Monday, the Gaza health ministry appealed for international help to restart medical care at Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The biggest hospital in southern Gaza has been out of action since the Israeli military stormed it in February.
The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. About 130 of the hostages remain in captivity, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead.
More than 32,800 Palestinians have been killed and 75,000 injured in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It says 70% of those killed were women and children.
Larry Desantis told the Baltimore Banner that despite being in the immediate vicinity he had not heard the container ship collide with the bridge because he had been playing his car radio loudly.
Mr Desantis, head baker at Herman’s Bakery in Dundalk, had been travelling on his regular commute in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
According to the Banner, he had made it off the bridge around 1:27am. About a minute later, at around 1.29am the bridge collapsed.
The only thing that had seemed suspicious to Mr Desantis had been the lack of cars around him.
At around 1.29am on Tuesday the Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed
(Getty Images)
“I didn’t even know anything was going on, but it was just really eerie when I got off of the bridge and there was nothing [behind me],” Mr Desantis told the Banner.
“Because with Amazon there, I’ll see 20 Amazon trucks every morning. I don’t care what day of the week it is. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing.”
He added: “I think about it, I might not be here now if I had been just a little bit later...Just a minute would’ve changed everything. It’s scary, you know.”
Mr Desantis said that later he had gotten a call from a detective from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police to make sure he was safe, though he was not sure how his car registration was obtained.
“They just wanted to know how many people they had to look for. That’s what he told me,” he said.
Despite his brush with death, Mr Desantis has gone to work each day since the bridge collapse, at Herman’s Bakery in Dundalk.
Now, his commute on an alternative route takes close to an hour, whereas before it was 20 minutes, he told the Banner.
Authorities survey damage of Francis Scott Key bridge collapse
(Viral Press)
Mr Desantis’ colleague and long-time friend, Deborah Allen, said she had woken up in a panic at around 4am. She knew his commute route and timing.
“I knew that’s what time he was coming,” Ms Allen told the Banner. “I knew he’d be crossing, and I panicked.”
She called her other colleague, Adrienne Porcella, several times, only to get voicemail, later getting through to her mother.
She finally confirmed that Mr Desantis was safe, and had clocked in for work at 1:43am.
Ms Allen can count the number of times she’s driven over the Key bridge on one hand. She told the Banner that she is “deathly” afraid of bridges and said she will likely never drive over one again.
Iran has blamed Israel for a deadly air strike on its consulate in Syria, in which two of its senior military commanders were killed.
Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) elite Quds Force, died in the explosion, which destroyed the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, a deputy commander in the Quds Force, was also killed, along with five other officers, according to the IRGC.
They are the most senior leaders of the force to be killed since the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
The IRGC blamed Israel for the strike, as did Iran's foreign ministry, which labelled it an "abhorrent" and "brutal" attack.
Tehran's ambassador to Damascus, Hossein Akbari, who was not injured in the strike, promised the Iranian response would be "harsh".
Israel declined to comment on the incident. The White House also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The deaths of the two commanders and the destruction of the Iranian consulate are likely to further inflame tensions in the Middle East.
Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, called the strike "a breach of all international conventions".
A spokesperson for the ministry told Iranian state TV that Tehran would decide on the type of "response and punishment against the aggressor".
Syria's foreign minister Faisal Mekdad, who later attended the scene, said his country "strongly condemns this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents".
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan also condemned the attack, while Hamas - which is backed by Iran - said it condemned the strike "in the strongest terms".
Image:Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad walks with Iran's ambassador in Damascus Hossein Akbari following the strike. Pic: Reuters
Who is Mohammad Reza Zahedi?
A top commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Guardsman Brigadier General Zahedi was a leading figure in its elite Quds Force - a unit specialising in military intelligence and unconventional warfare.
He was a mid-ranking commander during the Iran-Iraq war, having joined the IRGC two years after the revolution of 1979.
Having previously served as a commander in the Revolutionary Guard's ground forces, he served as the head of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon until 2015.
According to the IRGC-affiliated Sabereen News, Guardsman Brigadier General Haji Rahimi was one of Mr Zahedi's deputies.
He earlier served as the deputy commander of the IRGC Quds Force for coordination but was recently sent to Syria upon his own request to serve as Mr Zahedi's deputy.
