MILAN: The Italian Coast Guard rescued 22 people and recovered nine bodies after a smugglers’ boat capsized in a storm about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) south of the island of Lampedusa, authorities said Thursday.
Survivors indicated that the steel bottom boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia overnight Sunday carrying 46 people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast. The boat capsized Wednesday morning as waves reached up to five meters (16 feet) and “the group became very agitated when the engine broke down and they were left adrift,’’ the UN refugee agency said.
The victims included a six-month-old child, along with eight men, UNHCR said. Six of the survivors were treated for severe hypothermia and dehydration; two remain hospitalized.
After the rescue in rough seas with waves reaching more than 2 1/2 meters (eight feet), the Coast Guard said it continued the air surveillance of the area, which is under Malta’s search-and-rescue area.
The number of crossing attempts generally increase as summer approaches, raising concerns about more shipwrecks, especially as Italian port rules are restricting operations of charity rescue boats. Italy’s far-right-led government has recently been instructing charity boats to go to northern ports after each rescue, reducing their operations, and has been impounding boats that it says violates its rules.
“With the arrival of the summer season, we can expect more incidents at sea, as more and more people are leaving with completely unseaworthy metal boats, as we are seeing in these weeks,’’ said Federico Fossi, a spokesman for the UNHCR in Italy.
The International Organization for Migration put the number of migrants missing along the deadly central Mediterranean route from northern Africa to Italy at 385 so far this year and 23,109 since they launched the missing migrants project in 2014.
Italian coast guard rescues 22 shipwrecked people, recovers 9 bodies
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Italian coast guard rescues 22 shipwrecked people, recovers 9 bodies
- Survivors indicated that the steel bottom boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia overnight Sunday carrying 46 people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast
- “The group became very agitated when the engine broke down and they were left adrift,’’ the UN refugee agency said
At least 28 dead in Gaza strike on school-turned-shelter
- Israeli said the strike targeted militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups
- Hamas said allegations about fighters present at school were 'nothing but lies'
CAIRO: At least 28 Palestinians including children were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on a shelter in the northern Gaza Strip, a Gaza health ministry official said, while Israel said the attack targeted tens of militants at the site.
Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas, adding: “There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing. This is a massacre.”
“Civilians and children are being killed, burned under fire,” said Abbas.
The Israeli military said in a statement the strike targeted militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, who operated from within the Abu Hussein School in Jabalia that had been serving as a shelter for displaced people.
It said dozens of militants were present inside the compound when the strike took place, and provided the names of at least 12 of them, which Reuters could not immediately verify.
The military said it took precautions to mitigate harm to civilians and accused Hamas of using them as human shields — a practice Hamas denies.
Hamas said in a statement that allegations there were fighters at the school were “nothing but lies,” adding this was “a systematic policy of the enemy to justify its crime.”
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of dead at the school at 28. It said 160 people were wounded in the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said at least 11 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli strikes in Gaza City, while several others were killed in central and southern Gaza areas.
Footage circulated by Palestinian media of the Abu Hussein School and which Reuters couldn’t immediately verify, showed smoke coming from tents that caught fire, as many displaced people evacuated casualties including children to ambulances.
Residents of Jabalia, in northern Gaza, said Israeli forces blew up clusters of houses firing from the air, from tanks and by placing bombs in buildings then detonating them remotely.
The area has been a focus for the Israeli military for the past two weeks, which says it is trying to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping for more attacks.
Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking movement except for those families heeding evacuation orders and leaving the three towns.
“We have written our death notes, and we are not leaving Jabalia,” one resident told Reuters via a chat app.
“The occupation (Israel) is punishing us for not leaving our houses in the early days of the war, and we are not going now either. They are blowing up houses, and roads, and are starving us but we die once and we don’t lose our pride,” the father of four said, refusing to give his name, fearing Israeli reprisal.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it seized many weapons in the area, some of which were stashed in a school, and that its forces have killed dozens of militants in airstrikes and combat at close quarters, as troops try to root out Hamas forces operating in the rubble.
Northern Gaza, which had been home to well over half the territory’s 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel’s assault on the territory a year ago, after the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas-led fighters, who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel’s offensive so far, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The United States has told Israel that it must take steps to improve the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza in 30 days or face potential restrictions on military aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza, officials said, with aid likely to increase soon.
Egypt raises gasoline, diesel prices for third time this year
- Prices for diesel fuel, one of the most commonly used fuels in the country, were raised by 17 percent to 13.50 Egyptian pounds
CAIRO: Egypt raised prices on a wide range of fuel products early on Friday, the petroleum ministry said, marking the third such increase this year.
Prices for diesel fuel, one of the most commonly used fuels in the country, were raised by 17 percent to 13.50 Egyptian pounds ($0.2779) per liter from 11.50 pounds.
Gasoline prices increased from 11 percent to 13 percent depending on the grade, with 80 octane gasoline rising to 13.75 Egyptian pounds, 92 octane to 15.25 pounds, and 95 octane to 17 pounds.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in July that prices of petroleum products will gradually increase until the end of 2025, adding that the government could no longer bear the burden of paying the subsidies on fuels amid increasing consumption.
But the government’s fuel pricing committee, which typically convenes each quarter, said on Friday its next meeting will be held in six months.
Israel PM says killing of Hamas chief ‘beginning of the end’ of Gaza war
- “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end,” Netanyahu said
- Iran's UN mission says Sinwar’s killing would lead to the strengthening of “resistance” in the region
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip was the “beginning of the end” of the year-long war in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said that after a lengthy hunt, troops had on Wednesday “eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas at the start of the war, hailed Sinwar’s killing, saying: “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end.”
He had earlier called Sinwar’s death an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas.”
The chief of Hamas in Gaza at the time of the October 7 attack that sparked the war, Sinwar became the militant group’s overall leader after the killing in July of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
He is said to have masterminded the October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures that includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s announcement of Sinwar’s death comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a strike in Lebanon, where the Israeli military has been at war since late September.
With Hamas already weakened more than a year into the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death deals an immense blow to the organization.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said: “This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
“There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Militants also seized 251 hostages during the October 7 attack and took them into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.
Following the attack, Netanyahu vowed to defeat Hamas and bring home all the hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 42,438 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.
Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said: “We are settling the score with Sinwar, who is responsible for that very difficult day a year ago.”
He vowed the military would keep fighting “until we capture all the terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre and bring all the hostages home.”
Some Israelis hailed the news of Sinwar’s death as a sign of better things to come.
“I am celebrating the death of Sinwar, who has brought us nothing but harm, who has taken people hostage,” said one Israeli woman, Hemda, who only gave her first name.
Attending a Tel Aviv rally demanding the hostages’ release, 60-year-old El-Sisil, who also gave only her first name, said his killing presented a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for “a hostage deal to end the war.”
But whether the Hamas chief’s death will bring the end of the war any closer is unclear.
Warning that the hostages were in “grave danger,” Israeli military historian Guy Aviad said Sinwar’s killing was “a significant event... but it’s not the end of the war.”
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government and international mediators to leverage “this major achievement to secure hostages’ return.”
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, Biden called him to congratulate him on Sinwar’s killing, with the two leaders vowing to seize “an opportunity to promote the release of the hostages.”
Netanyahu said Palestinian militants should free the hostages if they want to live.
The Israeli military said Sinwar was killed in a firefight in southern Gaza’s Rafah, near the Egyptian border, while being tracked by a drone.
It released drone footage of what it said was Sinwar’s final moments, with the video showing a wounded militant throwing an object at the drone.
With the civilian toll in Gaza mounting, Israel has faced criticism over its conduct of the war, including from the United States.
In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, two hospitals said Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 14 people, though the military reported that it had hit militants.
According to a UN-backed assessment, some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter.
Nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, the UN’s International Labour Organization said, warning that the war’s impact on Gaza “will be felt for generations to come.”
Israel is also fighting a war in Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah opened a front by launching cross-border strikes that forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.
Hezbollah said Thursday it was launching a new phase in its war against Israel, saying it had used precision-guided missiles against troops for the first time.
On the same day, Israel conducted strikes on the south Lebanese city of Tyre, where the militant group and its allies hold sway.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported strikes on the Bekaa Valley, after Israel had issued an evacuation warning for civilians there.
The Israeli military said five soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon, taking to 19 the number of troop deaths announced since Israel began raids into Lebanon last month.
In Lebanon, the war since late September has left at least 1,418 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.
The war has also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
Iran on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel, for which Israel has vowed to retaliate.
Tehran’s mission to the United Nations said Thursday that Sinwar’s killing would lead to the strengthening of “resistance” in the region.
Lebanon crowdfunded ambulances under fire in Israel-Hezbollah war
BEIRUT: Lebanese data scientist and volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal started a crowdfunding effort to buy new ambulances for south Lebanon months ago, fearing Israel’s war in Gaza could spread to his country.
But weeks into Israel’s war with Hezbollah, his worst fears came true when an ambulance he had helped purchase was bombed.
“We were trying to get the number of ambulances up to the bare minimum level,” he told AFP.
“We weren’t expecting the ambulances ... to get directly targeted or bombed,” said Nakhal, who says the vehicle he had raised money for was destroyed in an Israeli strike just four days after the volunteers had received it.
The October 9 strike, which took place in the southern village of Derdghaiya, killed five rescue workers, including the head of the local team and his son, according to the civil defense.
The incident was among what the United Nations says is a growing number of attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, with paramedics, first responders and ambulances increasingly in the firing line.
“More attacks continue to be reported where ambulances and relief centers are targeted or hit in Lebanon,” UN humanitarian agency OCHA said after the Derdghaiya strike.
The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, though it has yet to produce any evidence.
“Necessary measures will be taken against any vehicle transporting gunmen, regardless of its type,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on social media platform X.
Nakhal said a second crowdfunded ambulance, dispatched to the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Monday, was barely on the road for a day when it had a close call with heavy strikes.
Israel had earlier in the war issued an evacuation warning for Nabatiyeh, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway.
No US role in Israel operation that killed Hamas leader, Pentagon says
- “This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved,” said a Pentagon spokesperson
WASHINGTON: The US military said on Thursday its forces had no role in the Israeli operation that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even if US intelligence has contributed to Israel’s understanding of Hamas leaders who took hostages last year.
“This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved,” said Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson.
“The United States has helped contribute information and intelligence as it relates to hostage recovery and the tracking and locating of Hamas leaders who have been responsible for holding hostages. And so certainly that contributes in general to the picture.”
“But again, this was an Israeli operation. And I would refer you to them to talk about the details of how the operation went down.”
