Ever Given, Ship that Blocked Suez Canal in March, Crosses Canal Again

Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, is seen after sailing through Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt August 20, 2021. (Suez Canal Authority/Handout via Reuters)
Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, is seen after sailing through Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt August 20, 2021. (Suez Canal Authority/Handout via Reuters)
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Ever Given, Ship that Blocked Suez Canal in March, Crosses Canal Again

Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, is seen after sailing through Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt August 20, 2021. (Suez Canal Authority/Handout via Reuters)
Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, is seen after sailing through Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt August 20, 2021. (Suez Canal Authority/Handout via Reuters)

The giant container ship Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March, crossed the waterway on Friday for the first time since it left Egypt after the incident.

The ship, en route from the United Kingdom to China, crossed the canal among a convoy of 26 vessels sailing from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement. Another 36 ships crossed the waterway from the south.

A group of SCA senior pilots and two tugboats escorted the Ever Given throughout its journey through the canal, the authority said in a statement.

The vessel, one of the world's largest container ships, became jammed across the canal in high winds on March 23, halting traffic in both directions and disrupting global trade.

Once it was dislodged, the 400-meter (1,312-foot) vessel left Egypt on July 7, 106 days after becoming wedged across a southern section of the waterway.

Egypt released the Ever Given after protracted negotiations and an undisclosed settlement reached between the SCA and the ship's owners and insurers. It arrived in the Dutch port of Rotterdam on July 29 before heading to Felixstowe, England.

Roughly 15% of world shipping traffic transits the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

Friday's voyage through the canal was the Ever Given's 22nd in the waterway.

Shipping trafficking websites Marinetraffic.com and Vesselfinder.com showed the ship in the Red Sea after crossing the canal‮.



Death Toll in Israeli Strikes in Central Gaza Rises to 25

01 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians check the damage following Israeli strikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy  Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
01 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians check the damage following Israeli strikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Death Toll in Israeli Strikes in Central Gaza Rises to 25

01 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians check the damage following Israeli strikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy  Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
01 November 2024, Palestinian Territories, Nuseirat: Palestinians check the damage following Israeli strikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. Photo: Omar Ashtawy Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

The death toll from Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies have been recovered.

Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the Gaza Strip's central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in.

Overall, the hospital said they had received 21 dead bodies from the strikes, including some transferred from the Awda hospital, where they had been brought the day before.

One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister — the children’s mother was missing as of Friday and the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told AP journalists at Aqsa hospital.

Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and on a house in Deir al-Balah on Friday killed four more, the hospital officials said, bringing the overall toll to 25.

The Israeli military did not comment on the specific strikes but said it had killed armed militants in central and southern Gaza Thursday.

Israel’s blistering offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, say health officials inside Gaza. They say more than half of the dead are women and children.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that a total of 55 people had been killed in the past 24 hours and that another 196 had been wounded.