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NUSEIRAT, Palestinian Territories — A day after Israeli special forces rescued four hostages from Gaza, Palestinians recounted their panic during the intense gun battles and explosions that rocked the area and reduced buildings to rubble.

While Israelis have rejoiced at the safe return of the four captives, officials in Hamas-run Gaza decried a “massacre” in which they said 274 people were killed and 698 wounded in the crowded Nuseirat refugee camp.

Soon after the raid started around 11 am (8:00 GMT) in Nuseirat’s busy market area, bombs were raining down and turning the neighbourhood into “smoke and flames”, said Muhannad Thabet, a 35-year-old resident.

“People were screaming — young and old, women and men,” he said by phone. “Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed due to the heavy bombardment and gunfire.

“Houses were destroyed with their occupants inside. There were also large numbers of displaced people and shops, stalls and cars were on fire due to the bombing.”

Israel had sent in a special forces team of troops, police and Shin Bet operatives who simultaneously raided two buildings to extract the hostages — Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.

They met little resistance in one, but heavy gunfire in the other and withdrew under attack with guns and rocket-propelled grenades to take the hostages to nearby helicopters, said military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Another military spokesman, Peter Lerner, told US network ABC that “the forces came under fire from a 360-degree threat — RPGs, AK-47s, explosive devices, mortar rounds. It was ... a war zone”.

‘No one could move’ 

Eyewitnesses said the Israeli raid and retreat were covered by heavy air strikes as well as drone and tank fire.

Several told AFP they had seen bodies in the streets, which AFP could not independently verify.

As the fighting raged, the injured were taken to one of Gaza’s hospitals, medics said.

“The hospital was filled with martyrs and injured, and it was impossible to accommodate such a large number within minutes,” said doctor Marwan Abu Nasser, an official at the Al Awda health facility near the camp.

“Of course, the hospital was under fire, and no one could move during the operation.”

Watching from his roof, another local man, Mohammed Moussa, said he was terrified when he caught a glimpse of an Israeli tank on the street below with artillery fire crashing down.

“I should be dead,” marvelled the 29-year-old after the battle was over, leaving much of the area covered in debris and heavy dust that coated the streets in grey.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after the October 7 Hamas sudden attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The fighters also took about 251 hostages, of whom 116 hostages now remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 of them are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 37,084 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Troops ‘disguised as Hamas’ 

Several witnesses reported seeing Israeli forces burst out of a refrigerated truck, dressed in the garb of Palestinian militants in an apparent bid to confuse their enemies, although this also could not be independently verified.

Alaa Al Khatib, a displaced woman living in the camp, told AFP she was walking to a market when she saw people climbing out of a refrigerated truck and exiting a small white car.

They then took out a ladder and began climbing into an upper floor of a nearby building, she said.

“Moments later, I heard gunfire and explosions from the houses, neighbourhoods and streets of the camp,” she said.

“I learnt that Israeli special forces had infiltrated the camp with Palestinian aid vehicles, all as a distraction to divert the attention of the people in the camp from the operation they came for, to liberate Israeli hostages.”

Several other witnesses reported similar details to AFP, notably the presence of a refrigerated truck.

“They were wearing clothes like Hamas and Islamic Jihad people, and some were masked,” said another local man, Mahmoud Al Assar, 27.

Recalling the intensity of the battle that soon erupted and devastated several city blocks, Assar said that “what happened in the camp was like an earthquake”.

SANAA — Yemen's Houthi rebels said Sunday they targeted ships off the country's coast with missiles and drones after maritime security firms said two vessels had caught fire after being hit by projectiles.

The strikes are the latest in a flurry of attacks by the Iran-backed rebels who have been harassing ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November in a campaign they say is in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war.

In a statement on social media platform X, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the rebels attacked "two ships belonging to companies that violated" directives by the group not to enter Israeli ports.

He identified the vessels as the Liberia-flagged MSC Tavvishi and the Norderney, which sails under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda.

Saree said the rebels also targeted the HMS Diamond, a British naval warship, but there was no confirmation from the United Kingdom.

The Houthi announcement came after maritime security firm Ambrey said an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship caught fire after being hit by a missile off Yemen on Saturday night.

“The ship was heading southwest along the Gulf of Aden at a speed of 8.2kts when the forward station was struck by a missile. A fire started but was neutralised,” Ambrey said in a statement.

A second missile was sighted but missed and “small boats in the vicinity opened fire on the ship” causing it to change direction to port.

“No injuries were reported,” the security firm added.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), run by Britain’s Royal Navy, said an “unknown projectile” hit a vessel off Yemen around 2000 GMT on Saturday, starting a small fire in the mooring station that was extinguished.

“All crew are reported safe and the vessel is now proceeding to its next port of call,” it said.

In a separate incident on Saturday night, the UKMTO reported another projectile struck a ship “on the aft section”, resulting in a fire. No casualties were reported.

“Vessels are advised to transit with caution,” it said.

The Houthi attacks have prompted some shipping companies to detour around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, a route that normally carries about 12 per cent of global trade.

Since January, the United States and Britain have launched retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the attacks.

The strikes have done little to deter the Huthis, who have vowed to target US and British vessels as well as all ships heading to Israeli ports.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israelis on Sunday cheered the rescue of four hostages from war-torn Gaza while Palestinians counted the cost, with Palestinian officials saying 274 people were killed and hundreds wounded during the daytime raid.

Special forces fought heavy gun battles with Palestinian fighters on Saturday in central Gaza's crowded Nuseirat refugee camp area as they swooped in to free the captives from two buildings and then flew them out by helicopters.

The Israeli military said the extraction team and captives came under heavy gun and grenade fire, which killed one police officer, while Israel's air force launched strikes that reduced nearby buildings to rubble.

The Gaza Strip's health ministry said 274 people were killed in what it labelled the "Nuseirat massacre", updating an earlier toll of 210 from the government media office which said the fatalities included many women and children, figures that could not be independently verified.

The health ministry said 698 people were wounded.

"My child was crying, afraid of the sound of the plane firing at us," said one Gaza woman, Hadeel Radwan, 32, recounting how they fled the intense combat as she carried her seven-month-old daughter.

"We all felt that we wouldn't survive," she told AFP, condemning "this brutal occupation that will not let us live".

Many Israelis shed tears of joy when they heard of the release of the four captives, all reported in good health — Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 41.

Hamas’s Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades claimed that other hostages were killed during the rescue operation, without providing details or proof, and warned that conditions would worsen for the remaining captives.

“The operation will pose a great danger [for] the enemy’s prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions,” spokesman Abu Obaida wrote on the Telegram channel.

Israel’s top diplomat rejected unspecified accusations “of war crimes” in the operation.

“We will continue to act with determination and strength, in accordance with our right to self-defence, until all of the hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.

Latest fighting saw four members of one family killed when an air strike hit their house in Gaza City’s Al Daraj area, according to Al-Ahli hospital medics.

Israel helicopters were also firing east of the Bureij camp, witnesses told AFP.

And heavy artillery shelling from Israeli army tanks hit central and northern areas of Rafah, said officials in the southern city.

The four freed hostages are among only seven that Israeli forces have managed to rescue alive since Palestinian militants seized 251 in their October 7 attack.

Dozens were exchanged in a November truce for Palestinian prisoners. After Saturday’s rescue operation, 116 hostages remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 of them are dead.

BEIRUT — Israeli strikes on Saturday killed two people and sparked wildfires in southern Lebanon, state media said, with Iran-backed armed group Hizbollah announcing the death of one fighter.

Hizbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in the eight months since the Gaza war began, triggered by the Palestinian fighter group's October 7 surprise attack.

The deadly clashes have intensified in recent weeks, causing multiple brush fires on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday that "an Israeli drone carried out an air attack with two guided missiles, targeting a cafe in Aitarun and killing the cafe's owner, Ali Khalil Hamad, 37, and a young man named Mustafa A. Issa".

The agency also reported a "violent airstrike" on the border village of Khiam.

Shortly after, Hizbollah said it launched Katyusha rockets on a town across the border "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks against southern villages and safe houses, and the targeting of civilians, notably in Aitarun where two people were killed".

The Shiite Muslim movement later announced that one of its fighters was killed by Israeli fire. It identified him as Radwan A. Issa, without providing further details.

The Israeli forces said in a statement that "one of its planes struck a HIzbollah terrorist in the Aitarun region", adding that they also struck targets in the area of Khiam.

More than eight months of border violence, which began on October 8, has killed 458 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but including about 90 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side of the border, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.

 ‘Phosphorus shells’ 

“Israeli artillery bombarded today the outskirts of the town of Alma Al Shaab with incendiary phosphorus shells, causing fires in the forests that spread to the vicinity of some homes,” NNA reported earlier on Saturday.

It added that the fire had reached “large areas of olive trees”.

Lebanese authorities and several international rights groups have accused Israel of using white phosphorus rounds in its strikes on its northern neighbour.

White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used as an incendiary weapon.

Its use as a chemical weapon is prohibited under international law, but it is allowed for illuminating battlefields and can be used as a smokescreen.

Rescuer Ali Abbas of the Risala Scout association, affiliated with Hizbollah ally the Amal movement, told AFP that “Israel deliberately bombs forested areas with phosphorus with the aim of starting fires”.

According to him, rescuers on the grounds have been struggling to extinguish the flames, while the Lebanese military avoids sending helicopters to assist for fear of more Israeli attacks.

Further east, the NNA reported that “a large fire broke out at positions belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL”, the UN peacekeeping mission, in the area of the border village of Mais Al Jabal.

It is located near the UN-demarcated Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel.

A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that fires broke out near military positions but have not reached them or caused any casualties.

The UN peacekeepers in a statement reported a “bushfire near one of their positions in Hula”, which was put out with help from Lebanese troops and civil defence forces.

“The fire didn’t cause any damage to UNIFIL assets or personnel,” it said.

The NNA said “several landmines exploded, and firefighting operations are still continuing” in the area.

WASHINGTON — American forces destroyed four drones and two anti-ship ballistic missiles in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the US military said on Friday.

The Houthis have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in attacks they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The attacks pose a significant security threat to a key international shipping lane, and the United States and Britain have since January carried out strikes aimed at degrading the Houthis' ability to target shipping.

"US Central Command [USCENTCOM] forces successfully destroyed four UASs and two ASBMs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen," the military command said in a social media post, using abbreviations for unmanned aircraft systems and anti-ship ballistic missiles.

"USCENTCOM forces also successfully destroyed one UAS launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen into the Bab Al Mandab Strait," CENTCOM said, adding that American forces also destroyed a Houthi patrol boat.

The Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles over the Red Sea within the past 24 hours, but “there were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships”, the military command said.

Houthi attacks have sent insurance costs spiraling for vessels transiting the Red Sea and prompted many shipping firms to take the far longer passage around the southern tip of Africa instead.

Houthi television channel Al Massirah meanwhile said there were air strikes in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and elsewhere in the country on Friday, but the reports could not be independently confirmed, and it was unclear if they were related to the incidents described by CENTCOM.

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — Pro-democracy activists in Sudan reported Friday about 40 dead in "violent artillery fire" the previous day when paramilitary forces targeted Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city.

Sudan has been ravaged by war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the army, led by military chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The Karari Resistance Committee, one of hundreds of grassroots pro-democracy groups that coordinate aid across Sudan, said the RSF was behind Thursday's deadly attack on Omdurman.

"So far, the death toll is estimated at 40 civilians and there are more than 50 injured, some seriously," the organisation posted on social media.

"There is still no precise count of the number of victims," it said, adding that bodies were received by Al Nao university hospital and other private health facilities or were buried by relatives.

The shelling came a day after the RSF was accused of killing more than 104 people, including 35 children, when they attacked the village of Wad Al Noura in Al-Jazira state, south of Khartoum.

In just over a year, the war in Sudan has claimed thousands of lives, with some estimates putting the death toll as high as 150,000, according to the United States envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello.

War crimes 

accusations 

Since the war began, more than seven million people have fled their homes for other parts of Sudan, adding to 2.8 million already displaced from previous conflicts in the country of 48 million.

Fighting continues daily, including in the capital, with both sides accused of war crimes including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid.

At least 35 children were killed in the attack on Wad Al Noura, with activists from the Madani Resistance Committee sharing images on social media of a row of white shrouds on the ground.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack, while the UN resident coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said she was “shocked by reports of violent attacks and a high number of casualties” in the village, and called for an investigation.

“Human tragedy has become a hallmark of life in Sudan. We cannot allow impunity to become another one,” she added.

The European Union was “appalled by credible reports of yet another senseless massacre of over 100 defenceless villagers”, its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement Friday.

He stressed the importance of “monitoring and documentation of human rights violations” in Sudan’s war “to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are held fully accountable”.

UNICEF chief ‘horrified’ 

African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat said he was “alarmed” that the situation in Sudan continued to deteriorate, and called in a statement on the warring sides “to end the fighting unconditionally”.

The United States condemned the “horrific attacks... on unarmed civilians” in Wad Al Noura, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, urging accountability and a resumption of ceasefire talks.

“Attacks on civilians throughout Sudan must stop now. There can be no military victory in this war,” Miller’s statement said.

The RSF is accused of looting as well as sexual and ethnic violence, and has attacked entire villages across Sudan on multiple occasions.

In a statement, the paramilitaries said they had attacked three army camps in the region of Wad Al Noura and clashed with them “outside” the inhabited area.

On Thursday, army chief Burhan visited the injured. In a statement he promised to “respond harshly” to the “crimes” of the RSF.

The head of the UN’s children’s agency, Catherine Russell, said she was “horrified by the reports that at least 35 children were killed and more than 20 children injured” in the attack.

“Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are unacceptable and must cease immediately,” the UNICEF chief said.

Both Russell and Borrell called on those fighting to abide by international law and for an end to the war.

On Thursday, the International Organization for Migration said the number of internally displaced persons could “exceed 10 million” in the coming days.

Starvation is also a growing threat in Sudan, with about 18 million people suffering from hunger and 3.8 million children acutely malnourished, according to UN agencies.