TUNIS: Tunisia’s coast guard has recovered the bodies of 16 migrants off the coast of the towns of Maloulech, Salakta and Chebba, the national guard said on Monday, the latest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean.
“The bodies were found at the weekend and on Monday... The victims have not been identified because the bodies had decomposed,” a senior official in the national guard, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, told Reuters.
Last month at least 15 Tunisian people died, including three infants, and 10 others were missing after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast at Djerba as they sought to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The bodies of 13 sub-Saharan African migrants were also recovered in the same area last month.
Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the major departure point for both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa seeking a better life in Europe.
Tunisia coastguard recovers bodies of 16 migrants
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Tunisia coastguard recovers bodies of 16 migrants
- Bodies were found on Saturday and Sunday
EU, UK call on Israel to stop settler attacks on Palestinians in West Bank
- Israeli human rights group: ‘These criminal and deadly attacks are carried out with the backing of the state’
- EU spokesperson: ‘Impunity for such acts risks provoking further violence’
LONDON: Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank must cease attacks on local Palestinians, Western politicians have said.
The UK and EU both condemned the rise in settler violence since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran on Feb. 28.
Six Palestinians have been killed by settlers in the 12 days since the start of the war, according to the UN.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said it had recorded 109 separate incidents of violence committed by settlers at 62 sites in the West Bank during the war’s opening 10 days. Both the UK and EU urged Israeli authorities to halt further attacks.
Three Palestinians died on Sunday in the village of Khirbet Abu Falah after armed settlers attacked it with guns before dawn, Reuters reported.
Palestinian health authorities said local residents Thaer Hamayel, 24, and his cousin, Farea Hamayel, 57, both died after being shot in the head.
A third man, Mohammed Murra, 55, died after going into cardiac arrest, having inhaled tear gas fired by the Israeli military.
The previous day, 28-year-old Amir Shanaran died after being shot by settlers at Wadi Al-Rakhim, local health authorities said. His brother Khaled Shanaran was seriously wounded.
On March 2, Mohammed Azem, 51, and his brother Fahim, 47, were shot dead by settlers at Qaryut, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said.
In a statement, Yesh Din said: “These criminal and deadly attacks are carried out with the backing of the state and almost complete impunity, advancing Israel’s objective of forcibly displacing Palestinians and annexing the West Bank.”
Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh on Sunday denounced the “major escalation of settler terrorism.”
An EU spokesperson said “impunity for such acts risks provoking further violence,” and called on Israel to “abide by its obligations under international law to protect the Palestinian population in the occupied territory.”
The UK’s consulate-general in Jerusalem said in a statement that the Israeli military must respond to settler violence with “swift, thorough investigations and accountability for those responsible,” adding: “Settler violence which terrorises communities must be stop
