4 dead, 9 missing after tourist boat sinks off Egyptian coast, officials say
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(CAIRO) — Three additional people — two Belgian nationals and an Egyptian — were rescued after a tourist boat sank Monday off the Egyptian coast, bringing the total number of survivors to 31, Amr Hanafy, the regional governor, said on Tuesday.
Four bodies, whose identities were not publicly released, were also recovered from the sea, he added.
The Sea Story sank off the southeastern Egyptian town of Marsa Alam, near the Shaab Satayah area, which is popular for its coral reefs, the Red Sea Governorate said. Forty-four people were onboard when it sank, officials said.
Rescue teams were still searching for nine missing people, Hanafy said Tuesday. Those missing include two British nationals, a diplomatic source who requested anonymity told ABC News on Tuesday.
Egyptian authorities were working with embassies and consulates to provide necessary assistance and documentation, according to a statement from the governorate. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo told ABC News it was not aware of any U.S. citizen fatalities in the incident.
Hanafi said strong waves caused the boat to capsize and sink within minutes. He said the 34-meter boat, privately owned by an Egyptian national, had no technical issues and had passed its last safety inspection in March.
The Sea Story set sail from the port of Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday for a diving trip and was scheduled to arrive at Hurghada Marina on Friday. A crew member sent a distress signal at 5.30 a.m. on Monday before the ship dropped off the radar, officials said.
Egypt’s Red Sea resorts are popular with tourists for their beaches and diving spots.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 5, 2023. (Photo by PAVEL BYRKIN/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — “Europe’s last dictator” — as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has often been termed — thus far appears to have kept his nation out of the worst of the spiralling war engulfing his neighbors to the east and south.
The 70-year-old provided invaluable material and political support for Russian ally President Vladimir Putin in his war on Ukraine, even offering Belarus as a launchpad for the doomed Russian drive towards Kyiv in the early stages of the full-scale invasion.
Since then, Russian forces have used Belarusian territory to launch ballistic missiles into Ukraine. Belarus houses bases at which Russian troops train for battle and hospitals where they recover.
Minsk even now hosts Russian nuclear warheads and Lukashenko brokered the short-lived settlement between the Kremlin and Wagner financier Yevgeny Prigozhin after the latter’s ill-fated 2023 mutiny.
As the war in Ukraine escalated and the enmity between Moscow and its Western rivals deepened, Lukashenko’s apparent hesitance to fully commit to the conflict seems to have bought him some level of freedom from retaliation.
But with Moscow’s drone and missile barrages into Ukraine growing in scale and regularity, Belarusian opposition groups say the danger to their country is increasing.
The Belarusian Hajun Project — an open-source intelligence group banned as an “extremist” organization by Minsk — said a record-high total of 151 drones entered Belarus during November. At least three were shot down by Belarusian air defenses, it added.
One Russian attack in late November saw a record 38 strike drones cross into Belarus, the group said. ABC News could not independently verify the drone flights.
Neither the Belarusian Defense Ministry nor Foreign Ministry replied to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Russian drones were first reported over Belarus in mid-July, their appearance then relatively sporadic. In October, the Hajun Project said it tracked a total of 49 Russian drones flying into Belarusian airspace across the month. The monthly total trebled by the end of November.
At least one drone landed and exploded in the southeastern Gomel Oblast, according to Ukrainian and opposition Belarusian media reports.
According to Ukrainian air force after-action reports, Russian drones enter Belarus near-nightly. The air force has noted that its evolving electronic warfare countermeasures play some role in the increasing number of Russian strike drones going off course.
Minsk has complained of Ukrainian drones violating its airspace. In July, Lukashenko himself demanded that Kyiv ensure “comprehensive measures be taken to rule out any such future incidents in the future which could lead to further escalation of the situation in the region.”
In September, Belarus’ military said it had downed foreign drones.
Chief of the General Staff Col. Sergei Frolov said drones were shot down without specifying their nation of origin. “Timely actions by the air defense forces on duty destroyed all the violators’ targets,” he said in a statement quoted by the state-run Belta news agency.
Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News that Lukashenko “has always been very careful to calibrate the policy in a way that allows implausible deniability of any involvement in the Ukraine war — and at the same time makes himself useful to the Russians.”
“He also knows that most of the Belarusian population has no interest in being dragged into the war at all,” Eyal added, describing a “balancing act” in which the Belarusian leader has to at least pretend to be defending the nation’s airspace.
“It’s not a great secret that the Russians can do more or less what they want with Belarusian airspace,” Eyal added. “The idea that somehow the Belarusian military is determined to defend its sovereignty is a bit far-fetched.”
“These are very calibrated messages from Lukashenko trying to persuade people — both at home and overseas — that somehow he remains a complete master of his own destiny,” Eyal said.
For Belarus’ pro-Western opposition — many now living in exile following Lukashenko’s crackdown on the mass protests that followed the 2020 presidential election — the drone flights are a sign of Minsk’s weakness.
Franak Viacorka, the chief political adviser to Belarusian opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, told ABC News that drones “are flying over Belarus practically every single night.” An average week sees 40 or 50 UAVs transit border areas, he said.
Viacorka said Lukashenko’s government is working hard to hide any evidence of errant Russian munitions. “It’s very uncomfortable for them to say that the Russians are using our airspace,” he said. “It happens with the agreement of Lukashenko, or perhaps Russia doesn’t even ask Lukashenko for permission.”
Aliaksandr Azarau — a former police investigator who defected and now leads the opposition BYPOL group made up of former Belarusian security employees — said government propaganda seeks to hide the problem while framing all intruding drones as Ukrainian.
“The concern is only for the people who see these drones above their heads near the Ukrainian border,” Azaru said. “The rest of Belarusians don’t think about the drones — it’s not their problem.”
Official Belarusian reports of drones being intercepted, he added, are part of “a political game.” Azaru even claimed that Belarusian military aircraft have held fire and flown alongside Russian drones, effectively escorting them into Ukrainian airspace
When a drone does fall on Belarusian territory, Viacorka said, “the place is cleared immediately” and any witnesses are pressed by security services not to reveal any details.
The issue, he added, is politically sensitive for Lukashenko. “His narrative is that, thanks to him, Belarus has not gotten involved in war,” Viacorka said. “But when people see drones and shells flying over their territory, they see that Belarus is already involved in war.”
“It’s very worrying that Belarus is getting more and more involved,” Viacorka said.
Lukashenko and his Russian allies, he added, are “putting more and more people in Belarus in danger.”
Russia’s access to Belarusian airspace may also pose a threat to eastern NATO nations, three of whom — Poland, Lithuania and Latvia — border the country.
Russian freedom to act throughout Belarusian airspace has “many implications” for regional NATO states, Eyal suggested, as well as for western Ukrainian regions that will be more accessible for Moscow’s Shaheds.
In September, Latvia’s Defense Ministry reported that a Russian strike UAV crashed in the Rezekne region in the east of the country after flying across Belarus.
Since then, “improvements in all levels of Latvian airspace surveillance have been made, as well as in decision-making and information exchange algorithms,” a ministry spokesperson told ABC News. This includes the deployment of mobile air defense battle groups to the eastern Latgale border region, they said.
The procedures for NATO’s Baltic air policing mission “have also been clarified, allowing allied fighters to destroy aggressor drones entering Latvian airspace if necessary,” the spokesperson added.
“Russia has control over Belarusian foreign and domestic policies,” they continued. “Belarus is an additional Russian military district, so the threat coming from Belarus is orchestrated by Russia. Unfortunately, it is not up to Belarus and its citizens to decide how Russia uses Belarusian airspace to achieve its aggressive foreign policy goals.”
“Hybrid warfare is already happening between Russia and the West,” the ministry spokesperson said. “Belarus is just a tool for Russian aggressive foreign policy. In the short term, Russia will continue to use a wide range of hybrid warfare tools to weaken Western countries and divide their unity.”
“The Belarusian regime’s hybrid attack on the Latvian border with artificial migration demonstrates that we must prepare for all possible scenarios including violation of our airspace,” they said.
(LONDON) — Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
He has been credited as the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that led to the deaths of 1,200 people, the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history.
“The master murderer Yahya Sinwar, who is responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement. “This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the evil axis of extreme Islam led by Iran.”
Sinwar, 62, had served as Hamas’ leader in Gaza since 2017 and assumed leadership of the group’s political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran this July.
Israeli authorities said they had been pursuing Sinwar for a year and that he had been hiding “behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip.” The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said their operations in recent weeks in southern Gaza restricted his movement and “led to his elimination.”
“Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run — he didn’t die as a commander, but as someone who only cared for himself,” Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said in a statement. “This is a clear message to all of our enemies – the IDF will reach anyone who attempts to harm the citizens of Israel or our security forces, and we will bring you to justice.”
The IDF initially said they were “checking the possibility” that the Hamas leader was among three militants killed in an operation in Gaza and were working to confirm identification through dental images and DNA testing.
Israeli police said there is a “definitive identification” of Sinwar’s assassination based on a comparison of dental records and fingerprint matching.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heralded his death as “an important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas” in a video address.
Katz said Sinwar’s death “creates a possibility for the immediate release of the abductees and to bring about a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza — without Hamas and without Iranian control.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also said in a statement that Israel “must act in every way possible to bring back the 101 hostages” still in Gaza.
Netanyahu said that to those who peacefully return the hostages, “we will allow him to go out and live.”
“The return of our hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our goals and it brings the end of the war closer,” he said.
President Joe Biden had been briefed on Israel’s investigation into whether Israel killed Sinwar, according to a senior administration official.
The Israelis also notified U.S. Department of Defense officials, including Secretary Lloyd Austin, about Sinwar’s potential death, a U.S. defense official said earlier Thursday per a pool report.
In 1989, an Israeli court sentenced Sinwar to four life sentences for his role in killing suspected Palestinian informers and plotting to murder two Israeli soldiers.
Sinwar spent the following 22 years in prison before becoming one of more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees released in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Jordana Miller contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
Airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs
Several large airstrikes rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday morning, shortly after the Israel Defense Forces issued new evacuation orders for people living in the southern suburbs of Dahiya.
Dahiya — known as a Hezbollah stronghold — has borne the brunt of Israeli airstrikes on the capital. It was here that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by a massive Israeli attack in September.
The IDF has said it is targeting Hezbollah operatives, weapons manufacturing facilities and arms storage sites in the area.
Lebanese authorities say 3,200 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since cross-border fighting with Hezbollah flared again on Oct. 8, 2023.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
New Gaza aid crossing opens, Israel says
The Israel Defense Forces and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency announced Tuesday the opening of a new humanitarian aid crossing into the Gaza Strip, on the same day a U.S. deadline to improve the flow of aid expired.
“In accordance with directives from the political echelon, and as part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid to the Gaza Strip, the ‘Kisufim’ crossing was opened” for “the transfer of humanitarian aid trucks,” the statement said.
The deliveries will include “food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to central and southern Gaza,” the statement said. The supplies underwent “strict security checks at the Kerem Shalom crossing” before being sent into the strip, the IDF and COGAT said.
An Oct. 13 letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that continued failure to allow adequate aid into Gaza may trigger U.S. laws restricting military support for Israel.
Among the letter’s demands were that Israel allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day, that it open a fifth crossing into the besieged territory, that it allow people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter and that it ensure access for aid groups to hard-hit northern Gaza.
The letter also called on Israel to halt legislation — since passed — that would hinder the operations of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Israel fails to meet US aid demands in Gaza, NGOs say
A group of eight aid agencies published a joint statement Tuesday alleging that Israel has failed to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the 30-day window set by the U.S.
The U.S. deadline for Israel to “surge” food and other humanitarian aid into the devastated territory expires Tuesday.
Officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned last month that Israel’s failure to deliver may trigger laws requiring the U.S. to restrict military aid to Israel.
The eight NGOs — among them Oxfam America, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children — awarded Israel a “failing grade” in meeting U.S. demands.
“The facts are clear: the humanitarian situation in Gaza is now at its worst point since the war began in October 2023,” the statement said.
“This new analysis clearly demonstrates that the Israeli government is violating its obligations under U.S. and international law to facilitate humanitarian relief for suffering Palestinians in Gaza,” Refugees International President — and former senior USAID official — Jeremy Konyndyk said.
“With experts again projecting imminent famine in north Gaza, there is no time to lose. The United States must impose immediate restrictions on security cooperation with Israel,” he added.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
US strikes Iran-backed groups in Syria
U.S. Central Command announced late Monday that American forces struck nine targets in two locations “associated with Iranian groups in Syria” in response to attacks on U.S. personnel in the country.
“These strikes will degrade the Iranian backed groups’ ability to plan and launch future attacks on U.S. and coalition forces” deployed to the region for operations against Islamic State militants, CENTCOM said.
“Attacks against U.S. and coalition partners in the region will not be tolerated,” CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said in a statement.
“We will continue to take every step necessary to protect our personnel and coalition partners and respond to reckless attacks,” he added.
‘No cease-fire’ in Lebanon, Israeli defense minister says
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday there would be “no cease-fire” and “no respite” in Lebanon despite an ongoing diplomatic push to end Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in the country.
Katz said the offensive against Hezbollah — and the killing of its former leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in September — “are a picture of victory and the offensive activity should be continued” to further erode Hezbollah capabilities “and realize the fruits of victory.”
“We will continue to hit Hezbollah with full force until the goals of the war are achieved,” Katz said in a post to X.
“Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel’s right” to “prevent terrorism on its own,” Katz continued, demanding the disarming of Hezbollah, the group’s withdrawal north of the Litani River and the return of Israeli communities to their homes in the north of the country.
Katz was appointed to head the Defense Ministry earlier this month. He replaced Yoav Gallant, who had emerged as a top critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Katz was previously Israel’s foreign minister.
7 killed in strike in southern Lebanon: Health ministry
Seven people were killed and another seven injured after an Israeli strike on Al-Saksakieh in southern Lebanon Monday evening local time, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
Search and rescue teams are working to find missing people under the rubble, Lebanese national media reported.
The Israeli Defense Forces issued a warning to residents of 21 villages in southern Lebanon telling them to evacuate their homes immediately Monday evening local time.
-ABC News Ghazi Balkiz
Israeli finance minister wants Israel to extend sovereignty to West Bank in 2025
Israel’s far-right finance minister said he wants Israel to extend sovereignty to the West Bank in 2025 and believes U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will “support the State of Israel in this move.”
“In the first term, President Trump led dramatic moves, including the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, recognition of the Golan Heights, and the decision on the legality and legitimacy of the settlements in Judea and Samaria, along with the Abraham agreements of peace for peace,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in remarks on Monday.
Smotrich, who has called for Israeli sovereignty in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for years, also said he has directed staff to begin “work to prepare the necessary infrastructure for the application of sovereignty” to the West Bank.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Hezbollah fires 75 projectiles into Israel, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah fired at least 75 projectiles into Israel on Monday.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it treated three people with shrapnel injuries in the area of Karmiel in northern Israel. Two other people were treated for shrapnel injuries in the Krayot area, the MDA said.
Hezbollah claimed several rocket and drone attacks on Monday.
Among the strikes was a “large rocket salvo” targeting a paratrooper training base in Karmiel settlement, Hezbollah said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Ghazi Balkiz
IDF orders residents of 21 south Lebanon villages to evacuate
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning to residents of 21 south Lebanon villages to evacuate their homes until further notice, warning of imminent Israeli strikes there.
Adraee said in a post on X that the villages were the site of Hezbollah military activity and warned that the IDF would “act forcefully” against targets there.
“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River,” Adraee wrote. “For your safety, you must evacuate without delay.”
“You are prohibited from heading south,” he added. “Any movement south could be dangerous to your life.”
Around a quarter of Lebanese territory and a quarter of all residents — some 1.2 million people — are under IDF evacuation orders, per United Nations analysis.
Israel has killed more than 3,000 people in southern Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, Lebanese authorities have said.
IDF says deadly north Lebanon strike targeted Hezbollah weapons
The Israel Defense Forces said the strike in northern Lebanon that killed dozens of people on Sunday targeted “a Hezbollah terrorist site” which was storing weapons.
Lebanese health officials said the airstrike on the village of Aalmat — in a mainly Christian area in the north of the country — killed 23 and injured at least six others. Seven children were among the dead, officials said. Search and rescue work was ongoing as of Sunday.
The IDF said that Hezbollah fighters “responsible for firing rockets and missiles toward Israeli territory” were “operating from the site,” adding that the details of the incident “are under review.”
Lebanese authorities say that Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,000 people since Oct. 8, 2023. Some 1.2 million people — around a quarter of Lebanon’s population — have also been displaced by Israel’s military campaign.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
IDF intercepts launch from Yemen
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it intercepted one projectile “that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen.”
“The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a statement posted to X, noting that the projectile caused sirens to sound in several areas of central Israel.
Overnight, the IDF also said it intercepted four uncrewed aerial vehicles that approached Israel from the east.
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
New Defense Minister says Israel has defeated Hezbollah
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared on Sunday that his country has defeated Hezbollah after killing the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
“We defeated Hezbollah, and the elimination of Nasrallah was the crowning achievement,” Katz said during a handover ceremony at Israel’s foreign ministry on Sunday.
The ceremony comes after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired the previous defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
There is no word on how this will affect Israel’s operations in Lebanon, which shows no sign of slowing.
“Now it is our job to continue the pressure,” Katz said. “We will work together to materialize the fruits of this victory by ensuring that the security situation in Lebanon has changed.”
Israeli president to meet Biden
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will meet President Joe Biden on Tuesday during his visit to the U.S., according to Herzog’s office.
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
Netanyahu says he’s spoken to Trump 3 times, ‘we see eye to eye’ on Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement Sunday to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, highlighting the violence Thursday on the streets of Amsterdam that authorities said targeted Israeli soccer fans there, saying in a statement translated from Hebrew: “We will do what is necessary to defend ourselves and our citizens. We will never allow the atrocities of history to recur.”
Netanyahu also said he has spoken to President-elect Donald Trump three times since the election.
“These were very good and important talks designed to further enhance the steadfast bond between Israel and the U.S.,” Netanyahu said. “We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects, and on the dangers they reflect. We also see the great opportunities facing Israel, in the area of peace and its expansion, and in other areas.”
