Alarm over Missing Migrants after Setting Sail from Libya

A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS
A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS
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Alarm over Missing Migrants after Setting Sail from Libya

A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS
A Libyan coast guard vessel is seen next to the Mission Lifeline rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, June 21, 2018. Hermine Poschmann/ Misson-Lifeline/Handout via REUTERS

Europe's coast guard agency said Sunday it was looking for a dinghy believed to be carrying dozens of migrants when it went missing after setting sail from Libya for Italy.

The UN refugee agency told AFP it was "very worried" about the fate of what could be 85 migrants lost in Mediterranean Sea.

Two German monitors of dangerous migrant crossings first reported spotting four boats in distress off the southern coast of Malta over the weekend.

The European Union's Frontex border guard and coast guard agency later told AFP that one of the four boats had safely reached Italy and another two were still at sea.

It said a fourth boat initially spotted on Friday was unaccounted for.

"Frontex plane will fly again (Monday) morning in search of the remaining boat," a spokesman told AFP.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it appeared that the missing boat had capsized.

"We are very worried," UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami told AFP.

Frontex said it had notified the coast guard authorities of Italy and Malta about the boats at sea.

Neither country's border authorities commented on the reported shipwreck when contacted by AFP.

Germany's Sea-Watch International group showed the boats' geolocation -- including one boat marked "unknown GPS contact lost" -- on its official Twitter account.

Sea-Watch presumed that the lost boat was carrying 85 people.

It said the other three boats were carrying 173 migrants in all.

Germany's United4Rescue monitor of migrant crossings said in a statement that it was receiving the same reports and feared for the lives of "dozens".

Italy has long established itself as the primary European port of entry for migrants seeking refuge from Africa and the Middle East.

But the Mediterranean country shut down its ports and said it would quarantine any illegal migrants because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Swiss-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the reports were "very worrying" but difficult to verify.

"In the absence of boats in the area, it is very difficult at the moment to confirm that there has been a shipwreck, or the number of victims involved," IOM Italy spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP.

"And unfortunately, from experience, we also think it is likely that there have been shipwrecks of which we are not aware."



UN: Nearly 70% of Verified Gaza War Dead Are Women and Children

FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
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UN: Nearly 70% of Verified Gaza War Dead Are Women and Children

FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians react after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, at Beach camp in Gaza City November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo

The UN Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
The UN tally since the start of the war, in which Israel's military is fighting Hamas militants, includes only fatalities it has managed to verify with three sources, and counting continues.

The 8,119 victims verified is a much lower number than the toll of over 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the 13-month-old war. But the UN breakdown of the victims' age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.

This finding indicates "a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality," the UN rights office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.

"It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment on the report's findings.

"Our monitoring indicates that this unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law," Turk said in a statement.

"Tragically, these documented patterns of violations continue unabated, over one year after the start of the war."

His office found that about 80 percent of all the verified deaths in Gaza had occurred in Israeli attacks on residential buildings or similar housing, and that close to 90 percent had died in incidents that killed five or more people.