TRIPOLI: The migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking saved 46 people in distress off the coast of Libya on Friday who were trying to reach Europe in a fiberglass boat, the humanitarian NGO said on Twitter.
Those rescued include four single women, a four-year-old girl traveling with her father and around ten unaccompanied minors, according to SOS Mediterranee.
The survivors are “now being cared for,” the group said, adding they were mostly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.
The central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The UN agency has estimated that since the beginning of 2023, 1,728 migrants have disappeared there, compared to 1,417 for the whole of 2022.
Frontex, the EU’s border patrol agency, says boat crossings across the central Mediterranean constitute the principal route for irregular migrant entries to Europe.
Crossings leaving North African countries including Tunisia and going to EU nations Italy and Malta “more than doubled” between January and May this year, compared with the same period in 2022, it says.
In June an overcrowded fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants sank off the coast of Greece, in one of the worst such tragedies in years.
Some 104 people were rescued and 82 bodies were recovered, but as many as 560 others on board may have perished, by some estimates.
Rescue ship saves 47 migrants in Mediterranean off coast of Libya
https://arab.news/vc2j3
Rescue ship saves 47 migrants in Mediterranean off coast of Libya
- Central Mediterranean most dangerous migration route in the world, experts say
Family of Palestinian-American shot dead by Israeli settler demand accountability
- Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community
LONDON: The family of a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man reportedly shot dead by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank have demanded accountability, amid mounting scrutiny over a surge in settler violence and a lack of prosecutions.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a US citizen born in Philadelphia, was killed near the city of Ramallah on Wednesday, becoming at least the sixth American citizen to die in incidents involving Israeli settlers or soldiers in the territory in the past two years.
Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community. Witnesses said that stones were thrown by both sides before settlers opened fire, wounding at least three villagers.
Abu Siyam was struck and later died of his injuries.
Abdulhamid Siyam, the victim’s cousin, said the killing reflected a wider pattern of impunity.
“A young man of 19 shot and killed in cold blood, and no responsibility,” he told the BBC. “Impunity completely.”
The US State Department said that it was aware of the death of a US citizen and was “carefully monitoring the situation,” while the Trump administration said that it stood ready to provide consular assistance.
The Israeli embassy in Washington said the incident was under review and that an operational inquiry “must be completed as soon as possible.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said troops were deployed to the scene and used “riot dispersal means to restore order,” adding that no IDF gunfire was reported.
The military confirmed that the incident remained under review and said that a continued presence would be maintained in the area to prevent further unrest.
Palestinians and human rights organizations say such reviews rarely lead to criminal accountability, arguing that Israeli authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers accused of violence.
A US embassy spokesperson later said that Washington “condemns this violence,” as international concern continues to grow over conditions in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to investigate or prosecute settlers accused of violence against civilians.
Those concerns were echoed this week by the UN, which warned that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank may amount to ethnic cleansing.
A UN human rights office report on Thursday said that Israeli settlement expansion, settler attacks and military operations have increasingly displaced Palestinian communities, with dozens of villages reportedly emptied since the start of the Gaza war.
The report also criticized Israeli military tactics in the northern West Bank, saying that they resembled warfare and led to mass displacement, while noting abuses by Palestinian security forces, including the use of unnecessary lethal force and the intimidation of critics.
Neither Israel’s foreign ministry nor the Palestinian Authority has commented on the findings.
