DUBAI: A boat with at least 45 refugees has capsized off the coast of Yemen’s Taiz on Wednesday night, and there are only four survivors, the UN refugee agency in Yemen said on Thursday.
The boat capsized because of strong winds and overloading, the agency added. It said it was working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to assist the survivors and provide protection.
No further details were provided about the rest of the refugees.
In June, at least 49 migrants died and 140 went missing after their vessel, which departed from Somalia carrying 260 migrants, capsized of the Yemeni coast.
IOM, which runs a tally of migrants who are killed or go missing on migration routes, has since 2014 recorded 1,860 migrant deaths and disappearances along the route running from East Africa and the Horn of Africa to Gulf countries.
According to the United Nations, 97,000 migrants arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa last year.
Boat with 45 refugees capsizes off Yemen’s coast, UNHCR says
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Boat with 45 refugees capsizes off Yemen’s coast, UNHCR says
- The boat capsized because of strong winds and overloading
- Boat departed from Somalia carrying 260 migrants
Satellite images show Israel’s aid distribution hubs under construction in Gaza
- BBC Verify says satellite images show work underway on sites believed to be part of Israeli’s control of aid supplies
- Israel has cut all aid into the territory since March, leading to increasing fears over famine
LONDON: Israel has started building distribution hubs in southern and central Gaza under plans to control aid supplies in the territory, the BBC reported on Thursday.
Satellite images showed four sites being prepared in Gaza, including three near Rafah in the south.
Israel cut off all aid supplies into Gaza in March after ending a ceasefire and resuming widespread bombing of the devastated territory.
Israel said that it will only allow aid into Gaza once it has prepared its new distribution system and taken over operations from the UN and aid groups.
Aid agencies warned last week that the Israeli plans will increase suffering and death in Gaza. The plan is also staunchly opposed by Arab and European governments.
The report by BBC Verify said that analyzes of the satellite images showed land had been cleared, with new roads and staging areas prepared in recent weeks.
The sites are similar in size and design to existing distribution hubs in Gaza.
One of the sites in the south is near a new Israeli military base, and images from early April showed a large staging area and new road surrounded by defensive berms 650 meters from the border with Egypt.
An image from May 8 showed earth-moving machinery working on an eight-hectare area of land.
Images from May 11 and May 12 showed the three other sites expanding, with one located half a kilometer from UN warehouses.
An imagery intelligence analyst told the BBC that the sites were likely to be secure distribution centers and that some were in “close proximity to IDF forward operating bases, which ties in with the IDF wishing to have some control over the sites.”
The newly created US-backed NGO, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said on Wednesday that it would begin work distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month but has urged Israel to resume aid flow immediately through the existing distribution systems.
The Israeli plans to focus the distribution hubs in the south has led to accusations that Israel aims to force the Palestinian population into that area.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation has become even more desperate, with food security experts warning this week that Gaza will soon descend into famine if the blockade is not lifted.
Major Palestinian hospital in Gaza out of service due to Israeli attacks
- Gaza European Hospital is the only remaining facility providing medical follow-up for cancer patients
- Intensive care units for premature infants lack incubators, respirators and oxygen supplies, and are at risk of shutdown
LONDON: A major Palestinian hospital in the southern Gaza announced it was out of service on Thursday after Israeli attacks damaged its facilities.
The Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis has sustained extensive damage due to Israeli bombings, impacting the building’s sewage network and internal medical departments, and destroying the roads that lead to it.
The hospital has 28 intensive care beds, 12 incubators, 260 hospital beds, 25 emergency beds and 60 oncology beds; however, all are out of service, Wafa news agency reported.
The Gaza European Hospital is the only remaining facility providing medical follow-up for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, after Israeli forces destroyed the Turkish Friendship Hospital in March.
Medical sources told Wafa that the hospital can no longer provide specialized services such as neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, a cardiac catheterization center, cardiovascular surgery and ophthalmology.
Intensive care units for premature infants in the hospital lack incubators, respirators and oxygen supplies, and are at risk of complete shutdown due to a severe diesel shortage to operate power generators. The hospital warned that premature infants in incubators are at risk of malnutrition, medical complications and even death, Wafa reported.
The hospital urged humanitarian and health organizations to urgently provide essential medical supplies, fuel, power generators and nutritional support.
Since March, Israel has prohibited the entry of humanitarian aid and relief into the Gaza Strip as it resumed military actions in the area. Reports indicate that 57 children have died from malnutrition-related causes since then.
Additionally, UN-backed food security experts have warned that hunger and malnutrition have sharply intensified since the onset of the Israeli aid relief blockade in March.
HRW: Israel’s Gaza blockade has become ‘tool of extermination’
- “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination,” HRW interim executive director Federico Borello said
- Israel said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip, in place since March 2, has become “a tool of extermination.”
“Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination,” HRW interim executive director Federico Borello said in a statement.
Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza on March 2, before resuming its military operations on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week ceasefire collapsed.
Israel said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza, most of them held since the Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
Israel denies that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza.
In its statement, HRW said that “the Israeli government’s plan to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population into a tiny area would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide.”
For weeks, humanitarian organizations and the United Nations have warned that supplies of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicine are reaching new lows.
Borello also criticized “plans to squeeze Gaza’s 2 million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable.”
The UN estimates that 70 percent of Gaza is now either an Israeli-declared no-go zone or under evacuation order.
UNICEF says artillery fire leaves Sudan hospital patients without water
- “Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire,” the UN agency said
- The conflict has effectively split the country in two
KHARTOUM: Around 1,000 critically ill patients in Sudan’s Darfur region are nearly without drinking water after artillery fire destroyed a water tanker at a hospital, UNICEF said on Wednesday.
The tanker was stationed at the Saudi hospital, one of the few still operational in El-Fasher, a city in North Darfur with a population of around two million.
The city is the only state capital among Darfur’s five states to remain outside the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but has been under siege by the paramilitary group since May 2024.
“Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire, disrupting access to safe water for an estimated 1,000 severely ill patients,” the UN agency said.
“UNICEF continues to call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and end all attacks on or near critical civilian infrastructure,” it added.
The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has pitted the armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has effectively split the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east, and center, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
On Wednesday, the army accused the RSF in a statement of targeting populated areas of the city.
In April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimated that 70 to 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas in Sudan were out of service, citing El-Fasher as a prime example.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, including 5.6 million in Darfur alone.
According to the UN, the war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminately bombing residential areas and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.
UN says ‘alarmed’ by escalating violence in Libya’s Tripoli
- IOM called "for an immediate cessation of hostilities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of civilians
- The IOM said it was "alarmed by the recent escalation of violence in Tripoli"
GENEVA: The United Nations voiced alarm Thursday at escalating violence in Tripoli, warning of a “severe risk of mass displacement and danger to civilians.”
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) called “for an immediate cessation of hostilities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of civilians in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.”
Their statement came amid fresh unrest in Libya, which has struggled to recover from the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
The country remains split between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east, controlled by the Haftar family.
Fresh gunbattles erupted Wednesday in the Libyan capital between two powerful armed groups, a security official said, a day after the authorities had declared the fighting over.
The IOM said it was “alarmed by the recent escalation of violence in Tripoli.”
It added: “We are also concerned by the mobilization of armed groups in surrounding regions. There is a severe risk of mass displacement and danger to civilians.”
On Tuesday, the Tripoli-based government said the fighting had been controlled and announced a ceasefire, even as shots were still fired in western parts of Tripoli.
“We welcome reports of a ceasefire and urge that it be fully and unconditionally respected to safeguard the rights and dignity of all those in the affected areas,” the IOM said.
“IOM continues working with partners to support humanitarian access to all vulnerable groups, including migrants,” it added.
“We are monitoring possible displacement trends and stand ready to support should needs arise.”
