CAIRO (AP) — A mass funeral was held Tuesday in Gaza City for more than 100 Palestinians whose bodies were recovered nearly three years after Israeli warplanes flattened a residential block.
Hundreds gathered as the bodies, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid in rows near the destroyed buildings before being carried on stretchers through a narrow street for burial in a nearby cemetery.
Elsewhere, a projectile reportedly struck a cargo ship in the
disputed Strait of Hormuz, Qatar said it was mediating peace talks between the United States and Iran, a memorial service was held in Beirut for victims of a 2020 port explosion and Yemen’s Houthis claimed they fired at an Saudi Arabian airport.
Here is a look at the most important developments in the Middle East on Tuesday.
The 112 victims were among more than 300 killed during a Nov. 22, 2023, attack on Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.
First responders recovered the bodies over the weekend after digging through the rubble for 136 hours, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operated under Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
The bodies included 40 children, 30 women and seven people with disabilities, the Civil Defense said in a statement, adding that another 157 people remained missing under the rubble.
The Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has since killed 73,375 people, including civilians and combatants, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Around 7,400 people are still missing and presumed buried under the rubble from the war, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.
The cargo ship reported being “hit by an unknown projectile” at 2 a.m. local time while it was 37 kilometers (23 miles) northeast of Al Khasab in Oman, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said.
The UKMTO did not provide further information on the ship, including what flag the vessel was sailing under or whether it was carrying cargo.
The ship suffered damage, according to British maritime security firm Ambrey, which did not elaborate.
The town of Al Khasab sits on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula that juts into the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passed before the war.
The strait has been effectively shut by Iran’s attacks on shipping since the start of the war in February, while the U.S. also has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the waterway.
Despite conflicting claims, mediation efforts were underway between the U.S. and Iran to wind down the war, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday.
“We’re looking into a diplomatic solution,” he said during a briefing without elaborating.
U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to unleash massive strikes on Iran before calling them off at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
On Monday, he said the two sides were resuming talks, but Iran insisted it was only talking with Oman about establishing a route through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!” the U.S. president vented on Truth Social, his social media platform.
A military spokesman for the Iranian-backed rebels claimed the drone hit a “sensitive target” at the airport in the southwestern city of Najran.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree did not provide evidence, but said the drone attack was in response to what he described as Saudi breaching of Yemen’s airspace over the provinces of Saada and Hajjah. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis recently announced they were imposing a blockade on Saudi-linked shipping passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that leads to the Red Sea. The rebels have long been at odds with Saudi Arabia, having fought a war against the kingdom and its allies. Major fighting ended with a truce in 2022.
The Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen in a civil war that began in 2014. Saudi Arabia led an international coalition fighting the rebels, and also imposed an air and sea blockade on Houthi-led parts of Yemen that has eased in recent years.
Families of the more than 200 people killed in the 2020 Beirut port explosion gathered at the blast site to mark six years since tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate exploded, devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital.
No official has been convicted in a judicial investigation that has been repeatedly obstructed. The tragedy has since been overshadowed by other dramatic events, including two wars between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group that have killed thousands in Lebanon and left widespread destruction, and an Israeli military occupation of much of the country’s south.
But some of the families said they have renewed hope that the long-stalled investigation is nearing a breakthrough, after officials from the government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam promised that indictments would be issued by the end of the year.
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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Abby Sewell in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.
