COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy and volunteers rescued 120 pilot whales stranded in the country’s biggest mass beaching, but at least two injured animals were found dead, officials said.
Sailors from the navy and the coast guard along with local volunteers pushed back at least 120 whales by dawn Tuesday after a gruelling overnight rescue, navy spokesman Indika de Silva said.
The school of short-finned pilot whales washed ashore at Panadura, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Colombo, since Monday afternoon in the biggest-ever mass stranding of whales on the island.
“We used our small inshore patrol craft to pull the whales one by one back into deeper waters,” de Silva told AFP. “Sadly, two whales have died of the injuries sustained when they beached.”
Local authorities were braced for mass deaths as seen in Tasmania in September when about 470 pilot whales were stranded and only about 110 of them could be saved after days of rescue efforts.
Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) confirmed that Panadura saw the largest single pod of whales stranded in the South Asian country.
“It is very unusual for such a large number to reach our shores,” MEPA chief Dharshani Lahandapura told AFP, adding that the cause of the stranding was not known.
“We think this is similar to the mass stranding in Tasmania in September.”
Pilot whales — which can grow up to six meters (20 feet) long and weigh a ton — are highly social.
The causes of mass strandings remain unknown despite scientists studying the phenomenon for decades.
Sri Lanka rescues 120 whales after mass stranding
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Sri Lanka rescues 120 whales after mass stranding
- The causes of mass strandings remain unknown despite scientists studying the phenomenon for decades
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
