Middle East updates: Israel orders evacuation of Rafah

Israel's military struck a building in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital Beirut early on Tuesday.

In a joint statement with the domestic Shin Bet security agency, it said the airstrike in Beirut's Dahiyeh  neighborhood targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.

Photos and videos widely shared on local and social media showed damage to the top three floors of an apartment building following the strike, AP news agency reported.

A photographer for AFP who is at the scene told the French news agency that at least three people were wounded in the strike, and were being helped by rescue workers.

The top two floors of a multi-story building were destroyed, the AFP photographer said.

The attack came without warning. In contrast, Israel warned residents before it  bombed southern Beirut last Friday, March 28.

Tuesday's airstrike is the second time Israel has struck Lebanon since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group.

US President Donald Trump has said he may visit Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries as early as next month to sign an investment agreement. 

"It could be next month, maybe a little bit later," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. 

"We're going to Qatar, also, and also we're going to possibly a couple of other countries. UAE is very important ... so we'll probably stop at UAE and Qatar," Trump said. 

Trump said his trip to Saudi Arabia would be to seal an agreement to invest upwards of $1 trillion (€923.7 billion) in the US economy, including purchases of military equipment.

"Tremendous jobs will be created in those two or three days," Trump said. The president did not elaborate on the specifics of the deals.

Other topics likely to be discussed include Russia's war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, a source told the Reuters news agency. 

It would be Trump's first overseas trip since his return to power in January. His first visit as president during his first term was to Saudi Arabia followed by Israel.

At least 322 children have been killed and 609 wounded in Gaza since Israel restarted its offensive and ground operations there, according to UNICEF.

"Most of those children were displaced and sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes," the UN children's agency said in a statement released on Monday. 

Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive ending a two-month ceasefire in the war with the Hamas militant group. 

The resurgence of bombardments as well as the new aid blockade has put Gaza's 1 million children at grave risk, UNICEF said. 

"The ceasefire in Gaza provided a desperately needed lifeline for Gaza's children and hope for a path to recovery," UNICEF's Executive Director Catherine Russell said in the statement.

"But children have again been plunged into a cycle of deadly violence and deprivation."

No aid has been allowed into Gaza since 2 March.

Food, safe water, shelter and medical care have become increasingly scarce as a result.

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has condemned the discovery of humanitarian workers’ bodies buried in shallow graves in Gaza, calling it ''a profound violation of human dignity.''

Posting on X, Lazzarini confirmed that the body of a UN colleague killed in Rafah had been recovered alongside aid workers from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). 

Lazzarini emphasized that the individuals killed were humanitarian workers and stressed that civilians, whether working on the front lines or at home with their families, must be protected at all times. 

He stated that putting emergency responders, journalists, or humanitarian staff at risk reflects a blatant and serious violation of international law. He warned that such actions must not be allowed to become a new standard.

Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, also described the site as a ''mass grave'' in his post on X. 

He said the burial site had been marked by the flashing emergency light from a destroyed ambulance, and shared images of Red Crescent teams digging through sand near a crushed firetruck and a UN vehicle.

"Seven days ago, civil defence and PRCS ambulances arrived at the scene. One by one, they were hit, they were struck. Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave,'' Whittall added in a post on X.

The Israeli military did not comment directly on the deaths of the PRCS workers. In a statement to Reuters, it said it had helped facilitate the evacuation of the bodies from what it called an ''active combat zone.'' It did not respond to questions regarding why the bodies were buried beneath sand or why the aid vehicles were crushed.

According to Lazzarini, the incident brings the number of humanitarian workers killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war to 408.

Israel's offensive in Gaza since the military resumed large-scale strikes on March 18 has killed 1,001 people, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory says.

There were at least 80 deaths in the past 48 hours, a ministry statement said.

The overall death toll in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, now stands at 50,357 people, according to the ministry's figures.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable.

Around half of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants are children and the UN says the majority of civilians killed have been women and children. 

Israel launched its Gaza operation after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued evacuation orders for most of the southern Gazan city of Rafah and several nearby municipalities, a spokesperson confirmed on social media Monday morning.

After the IDF ended its ceasefire deal with Hamas earlier this month, it has again stepped up bombardment in several areas of Gaza.

Rafah remains largely in ruins due to a major assault on the area last May.

Despite initially agreeing to withdraw from the area, Israel has argued that it needs to maintain a presence in the border region with Egypt to prevent weapons smuggling.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has officially nominated Eli Sharvit, a vice admiral and former navy commander, to lead Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet.

The move comes despite a Supreme Court freeze on the firing of incumbent Ronen Bar. Netanyahu's critics have called Bar's dismissal politically motivated, because Bar was investigating links between Qatar and several of Netanyahu's top officials.

Following a legal battle, the country's top court put a hold on Bar's firing but cleared the way for Netanyahu to interview new candidates.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) slammed the Israeli military on Monday for what it called the deadliest attack on its first responders since 2017.

Authorities said 15 emergency workers were killed by Israeli fire on ambulances in Gaza City on March 23. Fourteen of the victims were recovered late on Sunday.

The Red Crescent said the bodies of eight of its medics, plus six members of Gaza's civil defense agency and one UN employee, had been retrieved following an attack on ambulances in Gaza City. The body of a ninth Red Crescent worker is still missing, it added.

"The occupation's targeting of Red Crescent medics...can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world," the organization said.

IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said he was "heartbroken."

"These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people," he said. "They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not."

The Israeli military has previously said the ambulances raised suspicion by moving without prior coordination and without headlights. It did not provide evidence for these claims.

The Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr began on Sunday. Marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, it is celebrated in a number of ways including feasting, family visits, gifts and visiting the graves of loved ones.

In Gaza, muted celebrations took place under Israeli bombardment for the second year in a row. Families prayed amid the rubble of their homes, a month into an Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid and food supplies into the enclave.

Welcome to DW's updates on the situation in Gaza and in the wider Middle East. 

Israel's military is expected to soon launch another major offensive in Rafah.

Palestinians held funerals for 15 medics and emergency responders killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza.