CAIRO:Billions of dollars worth of global cargo began moving again on Monday after a giant container ship that had blocked the Suez Canal for a week was refloated.
“She’s free!” one of the Dutch salvage operators said, and tugboat crews sounded their foghorns in celebration as the ship began moving north at a sedate 1.5 knots toward the Great Bitter Lake, where it will be inspected for damage.
The 400-meter MV Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal early last Tuesday, halting traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia and denying Egypt up to $14 million a day in vital revenue.
Earth diggers, dredgers and powerful tugboats operated non-stop to dislodge the vessel from the rocky sand and clay on the canal banks.
It had been a day of drama, as hope alternated with despair. After dredging and excavation work on Sunday, and helped by a four-meter high lunar tide, workers from the Suez Canal Authority and a team from the Dutch company Smit Salvage partially refloated the ship early on Monday.
However, celebrations were premature. The vessel’s stern swivelled 100 meters into open water, but the bow remained wedged in the canal bank. It was not until late on Monday afternoon that tugs pulled the ship completely clear, into open water.
Smit Salvage said about 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged to refloat the 224,000-ton ship, and 11 tugs and two powerful sea tugs were used to pull the vessel free.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi declared victory. “Today, Egyptians have been successful in putting an end to the crisis of the stranded ship in the Suez Canal, despite the enormous complexity surrounding the process,” he said.
In the small canal-side village of Manchiyet Al-Rougoula, residents watched as the ship began to move. A father and his family climbed to the roof of their red-brick house to get a better view as the vessel, with at least nine levels of containers, slowly passed by.
“We are happy to see the boat move, thank God,” said one resident.
At least 425 cargo vessels have been waiting to transit the canal, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels.
Canal authority chief Adm. Osama Rabie said it would accelerate convoys through the canal now that the Ever Given was freed. “We will not waste one second,” he said.
A canal source said more than 100 ships would be able to enter the channel daily, but it could take up to three days to clear the backlog. Shipping group Maersk said the knock-on disruptions to global shipping could take weeks or months to unravel.
Maritime data company Lloyd’s List said the blockage had held up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe.
Suez Canal reopens after Ever Given is finally freed
https://arab.news/835y9
Suez Canal reopens after Ever Given is finally freed
- $10 billion a day in global cargo moves again after ship blocking canal is refloated
- 13 tugs pull 224,000-ton vessel free after dredgers shift 30,000 cubic meters of sand
Israel says Hamas has not given ‘status of hostages’ it says ready to free
“As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after a Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free in the first phase.
Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3
- The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory
JERUSALEM: A shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people and wounded seven others on Monday, Israeli medics said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said those killed included two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the ongoing war there.
The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. The identities of the attackers and those killed were not immediately known. The military said it was looking for the attackers, who fled.
Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the territory that frequently trigger gunbattle with militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in scores of settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is raging with no end in sight, though there has reportedly been recent progress in long-running talks aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a massive surprise attack nearly 15 months ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. They do not say how many of the dead were militants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90 percent of the territory’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are enduring a cold, rainy winter in tent camps along the windy coast. At least seven infants have died of hypothermia because of the harsh conditions, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order in many areas make it difficult to provide desperately needed food and other assistance.
New Syria foreign minister begins first visit to UAE: state media
Damascus: Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani landed in the United Arab Emirates Monday on his first visit to the country since rebels toppled president Bashar Assad last month, official news agency SANA said.
“Shaibani, accompanied by defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab, has arrived in the United Arab Emirates,” SANA reported.
Shaibani also posted a picture of himself on X stepping off a plane, and said he looked forward “to building constructive bilateral relations.”
The officials took office after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus in early December, toppling Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.
Their trip to the UAE comes after they visited its Gulf neighbors Qatar on Sunday and Saudi Arabia last week.
Both Qatar and Turkiye, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, reopened their embassies in Damascus in the aftermath of Assad’s flight to Moscow.
Turkiye has long maintained a working relationship with the HTS rebels, leaving it with a direct line to Damascus.
US to ease aid restrictions for Syria while keeping sanctions in place, sources say
- Department to issue waivers to aid groups and companies providing essentials such as water, electricity and other humanitarian supplies
The US is set to imminently announce an easing of restrictions on providing humanitarian aid and other basic services such as electricity to Syria while still keeping its strict sanctions regime in place, according to people briefed on the matter.
The decision by the outgoing Biden administration will send a signal of goodwill to Syria’s new Islamist rulers and aims to pave the way for improving tough living conditions in the war-ravaged country while also treading cautiously and keeping US leverage in place.
US officials have met several times with members of the ruling administration, since the dramatic end on Dec. 8 of more than 50 years of Assad family rule after a lightning rebel offensive.
HTS, the faction that led the advance, has long-since renounced its former Al Qaeda ties and fought the group but they remain designated a terrorist entity by the US and Washington wants to see them cooperate on priorities such as counterterrorism and forming a government inclusive of all Syrians.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration approved the easing of restrictions over the weekend, saying the move authorizes the Treasury Department to issue waivers to aid groups and companies providing essentials such as water, electricity and other humanitarian supplies.
Turkiye investigates opposition mayor’s comments about Syrians
- Opposition mayor’s claims that he unlawfully revoked some of their business licenses in his northwestern district of Bolu
Turkiye has launched an investigation into an opposition mayor’s comments about Syrians, including his claims that he unlawfully revoked some of their business licenses in his northwestern district of Bolu.
Mayor Tanju Ozcan talked about the measures he said he took against Syrian residents of his district on a news program that aired on Saturday, including the removal of Arabic language business signs and the revocations of business licenses.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Sunday that the Bolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office “opened an investigation into the Bolu Mayor over his remarks regarding Syrians in our country.” He did not specify the remarks being probed.
However, Ozcan, of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said on Sunday on social media website X “I said and did what I did regarding the refugees, taking the consequences into consideration. I am ready to pay the price for this.”
In his comments on the news program on Saturday he said the Syrians he targeted “might have won” had they challenged his moves in the administrative court.
Syrians have faced bouts of anti-migrant sentiment and even violence in Turkiye in recent years.
More than 3 million Syrians migrated to neighboring Turkiye after the outbreak of civil war in Syria 13 years ago. A rebellion last month ousted former president Bashar Assad from Damascus, leading to a rise in those returning home.
