MERSIN, Turkiye: The first of two naval ships evacuating Turkish citizens and their families from war-torn Lebanon landed at a port in southern Turkiye late on Thursday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
The TCG Bayraktar, which set sail from Beirut around 8:00 am (0500 GMT), pulled into the port of Mersin around 9:00 p.m. carrying the first batch of 966 people.
As it pulled into the port, a large group of journalists were waiting on the quayside.
A second boat carrying a similar number of passengers was set to dock around midnight, officials said.
Turkish officials said around 2,000 people had signed up to leave Lebanon on navy ships in the first such evacuation by sea.
Turkiye, which is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, announced the move on Tuesday because of the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Speaking to AFP in Beirut ahead of the boats’ departure on Wednesday, Turkish ambassador in Lebanon Ali Baris Ulusoy told AFP the evacuation was a first and came after “a growing number of requests from our Turkish nationals living in Lebanon to be evacuated.”
He said they were allowing close relatives “who are not necessarily Turkish nationals, like spouses, children or parents” to travel too.
Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire on the country’s southern border since the start of the Gaza war a year ago.
But Israel has intensified its strikes against Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and displacing more than a million from their homes.
Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye
https://arab.news/4nw84
Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye
- The TCG Bayraktar, which set sail from Beirut around 8:00 am (0500 GMT), pulled into the port of Mersin around 9:00 p.m.
- Turkish officials said around 2,000 people had signed up to leave Lebanon on navy ships in the first such evacuation by sea
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
