GAZA: Palestinians buried dozens of bodies in a mass grave in southern Gaza on Tuesday, after officials said the Zionist entity had returned remains it had exhumed from the territory. An AFP photographer saw Gazans moving the bodies in blue plastic shrouds from a truck towards the newly dug mass grave east of Rafah. Health ministry employees wearing white protective clothing lowered them into the ground, near the tents of people displaced by the Zionist-Hamas war.

A Palestinian source at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt told AFP the bodies returned had been “stolen by the occupation (Zionist) army during its incursion” into Gaza. A second source at Gaza’s ministry of religious affairs told AFP that the Zionist entity “stole them from Bani Suheila cemetery, east of Khan Yunis” around two weeks ago.

The Zionist military did not respond to a request for comment, although it has previously made remarks about exhuming bodies from Gaza graves in search of Zionist captives. The government media office in Gaza said the Zionist entity removed organs from the bodies, but the Zionist military spokesman denied this on Tuesday. In November and December, AFP journalists also witnessed the reburial of bodies which Gaza officials said had been exhumed by Zionist forces.

Meanwhile, deadly fighting and bombardment rocked Gaza on Tuesday as international mediators pushed for a new halt in the Zionist-Hamas war and a deal to release captives. Heavy Zionist strikes and urban combat across the besieged Gaza Strip killed 128 more people overnight, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory said. The epicenter of fighting has been the southern city of Khan Yunis, where vast areas have been reduced to a muddy wasteland of bombed-out buildings.

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group fighting alongside Hamas, said it was battling Zionist troops near Khan Yunis and in other areas including Gaza City. The Gaza war, now in its fourth month, has left much of the coastal territory in ruins and sparked a spiraling humanitarian crisis for its 2.4 million people, many of whom face the threats of hunger and disease.

The Zionist entity has charged that around a dozen staff of the main UN aid agency for Palestinians took part in the Oct 7 attack, leading key donor countries including the United States and Germany to suspend funding. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has pleaded for continued support to meet the “dire needs”, planned talks with donors in New York on Tuesday, his office said, as investigations into the Zionist entity’s claims continue.

The World Health Organization called the row over UNRWA “a distraction from what’s really going on every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza”. “As important as this discussion is, let’s not forget what the real issues are on the ground,” said spokesman Christian Lindmeier. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged UNRWA to address the allegations but also hailed the agency’s “absolutely indispensable role” in supporting Gazans.

In Lebanon, dozens joined a Hamas-led rally to protest the funding halts. UNRWA estimates 250,000 Palestinian refugees live there, most of them in poverty. “The suspension of aid would be catastrophic,” said 65-year-old Abu Mohammed, urging governments “to reverse their decision”.

The Zionist entity’s relentless military offensive has killed at least 26,751 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. In the latest efforts to broker a new truce, a meeting in Paris on Sunday between top US, Zionist, Egyptian and Qatari officials resulted in a proposed framework.

Hamas confirmed on Tuesday that it had received the proposal, saying on its Telegram account that it was “in the process of examining it and delivering its response”. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, whose government helped broker a previous truce in November, voiced hope an initial deal might lead to a permanent ceasefire.

According to him, the current plan included a phased truce that would see women and children hostages released first, with more aid also entering Gaza. Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office earlier also called the talks “constructive”, on Tuesday ruled out releasing “thousands” of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal to halt fighting in Gaza. The Zionist entity’s top ally the United States expressed hope for a deal, with Blinken telling reporters that “very important, productive work has been done”. – AFP