UNIFIL: No Recent Blue Line Crossing between Lebanon and Israel

Irish UN peacekeepers check the site where a UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL convoy came under fire on Wednesday. (AFP via Getty Images)
Irish UN peacekeepers check the site where a UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL convoy came under fire on Wednesday. (AFP via Getty Images)
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UNIFIL: No Recent Blue Line Crossing between Lebanon and Israel

Irish UN peacekeepers check the site where a UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL convoy came under fire on Wednesday. (AFP via Getty Images)
Irish UN peacekeepers check the site where a UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL convoy came under fire on Wednesday. (AFP via Getty Images)

UNIFIL’s spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said on Thursday that no crossing of the Blue Line has been recorded recently between Lebanon and Israel.

Tenenti said the UNIFIL has inspected media reports claiming that a person has trespassed from Lebanon into Israel, according to dpa.

“The UNIFIL did not record any crossing of the Blue Line in the last few days,” Tenenti was quoted as saying in a statement published by Lebanon’s National News Agency on Thursday.

He added that Head of Mission and Force Commander of the UNIFIL Major General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz urged both sides to exercise self-control and to preserve stability.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army said it killed an armed suspect on Monday entering the country from Lebanon with a suicide vest and that investigations were ongoing to see if he has links to Hezbollah.

The Israeli army said soldiers stopped a car carrying the bombing suspect at a checkpoint Monday shortly after a roadside explosion seriously injured a driver near Megiddo Junction in the country’s north.

The suspect was wearing a suicide vest and had a rifle and a gun when he was stopped near the border with Lebanon. The army said it shot and killed the man and is questioning the driver.

The army said the device exploded at a 90-degree angle, which is unusual for the area. That led officials to suspect that the man infiltrated from Lebanon and may have been linked to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.



At Least 69 Migrants Killed in Shipwreck off Morocco on Deadly Route to Spain

Guards on the Canary Islands during the rescue of a boat carrying 57 illegal immigrants (EPA)
Guards on the Canary Islands during the rescue of a boat carrying 57 illegal immigrants (EPA)
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At Least 69 Migrants Killed in Shipwreck off Morocco on Deadly Route to Spain

Guards on the Canary Islands during the rescue of a boat carrying 57 illegal immigrants (EPA)
Guards on the Canary Islands during the rescue of a boat carrying 57 illegal immigrants (EPA)

At least 69 people died after a boat headed from West Africa to the Canary Islands capsized off Morocco on Dec. 19, Malian authorities said, as data showed deaths of migrants attempting to reach Spain surged to an all-time high in 2024.

The makeshift boat was carrying around 80 people when it capsized. Only 11 survived, the Ministry of Malians Abroad said in a statement on Thursday, after collecting information to reconstruct the incident.

A crisis unit has been set up to monitor the situation, it added, Reuters reported. The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands, typically used by African migrants trying to reach mainland Spain, has seen a surge this year, with 41,425 arrivals in January-November already exceeding last year's record 39,910.

Years of conflict in the Sahel region that includes Mali, unemployment and the impact of climate change on farming communities are among the reasons why people attempt the crossing.

One person died among 300 people who arrived on six boats on Friday on the island of El Hierro in the Canaries, according to the Red Cross.

The Atlantic route, which includes departure points in Senegal and Gambia, Mauritania and Morocco, is the world's deadliest, according to migrant aid group Walking Borders.

In its annual report released this week, the group said 9,757 migrants died at sea in 2024 trying to reach the Spanish archipelago from Africa's Atlantic coast. A record 10,457 people - or nearly 30 people a day - died attempting to reach Spain this year from all routes, according to the report.

The route departing from Mauritania, which has been particularly well used this year by migrants leaving the Sahel region, was the deadliest, accounting for 6,829 deaths.