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A powerful explosion at Shahid Rajaee port in southern Iran has caused widespread damage and casualties, with emergency teams rushing to the scene to bring the situation under control.

According to the Hormozgan Emergency Department, at least 561 people were injured after a fuel tanker exploded for unknown reasons at Shahid Rajaee port in Hormozgan Province on Saturday, Tasnim News Agency reported.

The wounded were transferred to Hormozgan hospitals.

The director general of Hormozgan’s crisis management department said the explosion was extremely strong, but the cause has not yet been determined.

Initial reports indicate that the blast originated in an administrative building within the port complex. The blast was so intense that it completely destroyed the administrative building and severely damaged many vehicles.

Following the incident, all port operations were suspended as security and emergency teams worked to secure the area. Authorities immediately declared a state of emergency at hospitals across Bandar Abbas in preparation for possible mass casualties.

The US military has struck the western Yemeni oil port of Ras Isa, leaving dozens of workers and paramedics dead, and dozens more injured.

The facility in Hudaydah governorate was hit at least two times on Thursday night, with the second strike coming as civil defense and rescue teams were extinguishing fires and recovering victims. The second attack killed at least five paramedics.

The Palestinian Information Center and al-Manar TV now report that at least 38 people have been killed in that attack, while 102 others injured.

The Yemeni government slammed the attack as a clear war crime aimed at supporting the Zionist regime and enabling it to continue the Gaza genocide.

It said the strikes prove that the US deliberately attacks civilian infrastructure in Yemen with false justifications.

The government vowed that this crime would not pass without painful punishment, and the US would reap nothing but humiliating defeat and failure.

The US military claimed the port was a source of fuel for the Ansarullah resistance movement.

The governorates of Sana'a, al-Bayda and Hudaydah were also hit with multiple strikes.

The United States intensified its deadly attacks on the country last month at President Donald Trump’s direct orders.

Washington claims the raids are strictly aimed at protecting shipping activity around Yemen, alleging that the regional waterways’ maritime security had been endangered by Sana’a.

Yemeni officials have, however, roundly rejected such claims, underlining that the country only targeted vessels belonging to the Israeli regime and ships taking supplies to it.

The operations implemented by Yemen’s Armed Forces began in October 2023, when the Israeli regime, the US’s most cherished regional ally, began taking the Gaza Strip under a genocidal war.

More than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of the warfare, which receives hugely enhanced and unstinting arms support on the part of Washington.

Israel has prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from entering the holy land of Jerusalem to celebrate a Christian festivity at the city’s churches.

The Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that only a limited number of Palestinian Christians were able to attend celebrations in al-Quds for the Palm Sunday feast day. 

Israeli forces issued only 6,000 permits for West Bank Christians, although the population exceeds 50,000, the report added.

The occupation’s soldiers imposed strict measures at checkpoints surrounding al-Quds and its Old City, home to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

“This is the second consecutive year that only a small number of pilgrims are able to participate in Holy Week and Easter celebrations in al-Quds, due to the ongoing conflict,” said Father Ibrahim Faltas, deputy head of the Custody of the Holy Land.

Christians in the Gaza Strip commemorated Palm Sunday at Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, just hours after an Israeli aerial assault on the nearby al-Ahli Arab hospital.

In a statement, the Gaza-based Hamas resistance group censured Israel for restricting West Bank Palestinians’ access to al-Quds.

The Israeli move is a part of a broader racist and fascist policy aimed at isolating Palestinians from their homeland and holy sites, it added.

Hamas also called on all churches across the world to condemn the occupation and its ongoing attacks on freedom of worship and access to holy sites.

It further urged the international community to take serious steps towards ending Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which is aimed at annihilating Palestinians and liquidating their cause.

Israel launched its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

After one and a half years of war, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives in the besieged territory, despite killing at least 50,944 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 116,156 others.