7 dead in stampede as over 100 million people gather at India’s Maha Kumbh festival
Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images
(ALLAHABAD, INDIA) — At least seven people were killed and around 10 injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s biggest gatherings that occurs every 12 years, authorities said.
The Maha Kumbh Mela takes place every dozen years in the Indian city of Prayagraj, about 90 miles west of the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, when an estimated 100 million people gather to bathe in holy river waters at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati rivers. It is considered one of the most auspicious and holy dates on the Hindu calendar.
The stampede began in the early hours Wednesday morning, according to Indian officials. The death toll and numbers of those injured is expected to rise.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic at the festival but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident “extremely sad” and extended his condolences to those affected.
“My deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones. Along with this, I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured,” Modi said in a post on X.
Modi added that he is in touch with his chief minister and other related authorities regarding the incident.
Authorities are expecting more than 100 million people to visit Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh Mela — meaning “Festival of the Sacred Pitcher” — on Wednesday for the holy dip. It is regarded as a significant and auspicious day for Hindus due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.
Authorities have built a gigantic tent city on the banks of the rivers to accommodate the millions of pilgrims and tourists attending the festival — equipped with 3,000 kitchens, 150,000 toilets, roads, electricity, water, communication towers and 11 hospitals, according to the Associated Press.
An estimated 50,000 security personnel are also stationed in the city to help keep the peace as well as manage the tens of millions of people in the crowds.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian and Prashun Mazumdar contributed to this report.
(ITALY) — An 11-year-old girl was miraculously rescued after three days of being stranded at sea when a shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa island is believed to have killed the remaining passengers on the vessel.
Germany’s CompassCollective, the charitable organization that rescued the girl at 3 a.m. on Wednesday, said its boat was en route on a different rescue operation when they heard her shouting from the water.
“It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the child’s voice despite the engine running,” Skipper Matthias Wiedenlübbert said in a press release detailing the rescue.
The shipwrecked metal boat, which had initially set off from Sfax, Tunisia, was caught in a storm that lasted several days in the central Mediterranean, according to the release.
There were an estimated 45 passengers onboard the ship before it sank, the organization said.
The 11-year-old girl said she drifted in the water for three days with two improvised life rings made from air-filled inner tubes and a simple life jacket.
She survived without any drinking water or food and despite suffering from hypothermia, she was “responsive and oriented,” according to the release.
The girl told the organization she had been in contact with two other passengers in the water two days after the shipwreck, but that the contact had broken off.
After receiving medical attention, the girl was moved to a migrant holding center in Lampedusa where Italian Red Cross staff were looking after her, according to the organization.
CompassCollective’s Katja Tempel said the rescue signals an ongoing crisis for migrants embarking on dangerous journeys by boat in attempts to get to Europe.
“Even in storms, people are forced to use risky escape routes across the Mediterranean. We need safe passages for refugees and an open Europe that welcomes people and gives them easy access to the asylum system. Drowning in the Mediterranean is not an option,” Tempel said in the release.
According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the migration route between Tunisia, Libya, Italy and Malta is one of the most dangerous passages in the world with over 24,300 people disappearing or dying since 2014.
“The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable,” IOM Director General António Vitorino said in 2023. “With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized,” he added.
(LONDON) — After dedicating his life to fighting the regime of Assad, Mazen Al-Hamada did not live to see it fall.
A symbol of resilience and courage, the famous Syrian activist was found dead in the “slaughterhouse” prison of Saydnaya in Damascus, as confirmed by the Syrian Emergency Task Force to ABC News.
An unverified photo circulating online shows his disfigured face and suggests he was killed just before the rebels that ousted Assad reached the prison to liberate detainees, according to independent observers.
On Thursday, hundreds gathered in Damascus for Al-Hamada’s funeral, where one of his sisters leading the procession called him “a martyr of revolution and freedom.”
Originally from Deir Ezzor, Al-Hamada was first arrested in 2011 when he organized pro-democracy rallies in the context of the Arab Spring and documented the brutal repression from the Syrian government.
In 2012, he was arrested again for trying to smuggle baby formula into a besieged suburb of Damascus, returning to prison a second time.
He left Syria in 2013 and was granted asylum in the Netherlands a year later.
Once abroad, the world got to know the horrors endured by Al-Hamada, along with thousands of detainees, as he described them to huge crowds of students, policymakers and the press. He did not spare details of the numerous ways in which he had been tortured, reliving his trauma over and over again to raise awareness.
“Mazen poured his heart into every meeting and to anyone he spoke with,” Humanitarian Programs Director at the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) Natalie Larrison, who was on the road with him and became his close friend, told ABC News. As they traveled the United States, meeting everyone who would listen, from congress members in Washington, D.C., to students in Arkansas, Larrison said he was always “in the backseat singing and clapping and jumping up and down.”
Larrison also said Al-Hamada loved American tacos, especially from Taco Bell, and that he told her he was engaged and kept the ring even after his fiancé had been killed while he was in prison the first time.
With every testimony, Al-Hamada quickly became one of the most prominent advocates for Syrian prisoners held by Assad’s regime, at least 157,000 between 2011 and August 2024, including thousands of women and children, according to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
“Mazen was a gentle soul,” Sara Afshar, a friend of Al-Hamada and the director of the 2017 documentary “Syria’s Disappeared” in which he was featured, told ABC News, “A lot of people in his situation would focus on looking after themselves… but everything that motivated him, with an incredible sense of urgency, every second of the day, was how to get the other prisoners out. Because he knew what they were going through.”
Along with thousands of users on social media, Afshar called for justice for Al-Hamada and the other Syrian detainees who are dead or unaccounted for, echoing the words that Al-Hamada himself said in an interview which has been trending on social media since the news of his death.
“I will not rest until I take them to court and get justice,” Al-Hamada said in the interview, his sunken eyes in tears unable to hide the pain behind his words. “Justice for me and my friends who they killed. Even if it costs my life. Bring them to justice, no matter what.”
Al-Hamada returned to Syria four years ago in a shocking move that some people close to him described as the result of his disappointment in the international community. The last time he was active on his WhatsApp was on Feb. 22, 2020, according to the SETF.
“He became discouraged over time because he gave it his all with people promising to help, and nothing changed,” Larrison told ABC News.
Others, including his sister who spoke at his funeral on Thursday, believe the regime promised him safety if he returned to Syria in an attempt to stop his international anti-Assad campaign. She also said they threatened to hurt his family still in Syria.
“The circumstances of Mazen’s death underscore the heavy price borne by those who dared speak out against Assad’s brutal regime,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force said in a statement remembering Al-Hamada.
The Dutch government never commented on his departure, fostering rumors that it failed to support the refugee and his efforts to raise awareness for the Syrian cause.
When asked about Al-Hamada’s legacy, the people who knew him said it would be justice and his contribution to freeing Syria from Assad’s five decadeslong regime.
“Seeing his funeral service today in Damascus is a testimony to what he meant to the Syrian people. His tireless journey has not been for nothing and his legacy will continue to live on in a free Syria, and he will be remembered always for helping his people be free,” Larrison told ABC News.
“We talked about justice and accountability when he recounted the horrors he had experienced. He didn’t want revenge. What he wanted was justice in a court of law,” Afshar told ABC News. “The world failed him and the other disappeared, and now they are dead. But with all the evidence that is being gathered and the work that so many Syrians have done for years, I have hope that there will be justice. That will be Mazen’s legacy.”
Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. could “level the site” and rebuild the sovereign territory — after earlier saying Palestinians living there should leave.
“They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony” in other areas or countries, Trump said Tuesday night during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out,” he added.
The White House defended Trump’s proposal as “bold, fresh, new ideas.”
“The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and he puts some very bold, fresh, new ideas out on the table, I don’t think should be criticized in any way. I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions, if they don’t like Mr. Trump’s solutions,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
Trump has not committed to putting American troops on the ground in Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners [in] the region to reconstruct this region,” she said.
“I can confirm that the president is committed to rebuilding Gaza and to temporarily relocating those who are there, because, as I’ve showed you repeatedly, it is a demolition site,” she later said.
International reaction to Trump’s proposal came in swiftly on Wednesday.
United Nations
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the proposal during remarks to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the U.N. on Wednesday.
“We must not make the problem worse,” Guterres said, in part, referring to Trump’s comments Tuesday but not addressing them directly or naming the U.S. president, adding: “It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”
“At its essence, the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is about the right of Palestinians to simply live as human beings in their own land,” Guterres said.
The secretary-general called for reaffirming the two-state solution.
Arab nations
Saudi Arabia issued a statement repeating what it has said in the past, that the kingdom would not establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state — even though Netanyahu said he thought normalization with the Gulf kingdom was “going to happen.”
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
Saudi Arabi reaffirmed its “unequivocal rejection” to attempts to displace Palestinians from their land, adding that its position to the Palestinians is “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.”
Trump last month suggested Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians in order to “clean out” Gaza, something both Jordan’s king and Egypt’s president have fiercely opposed.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday called for swift reconstruction of Gaza without displacing Palestinians and for the Palestinian Authority to govern the territory.
In talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Cairo, the two leaders agreed on “the importance of moving forward with early recovery projects and programs, removing rubble and providing humanitarian aid at an accelerated pace, without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
While the statement did not directly address Trump’s surprise remarks, it marked Egypt’s first official response to the proposal.
Abdelatty stressed “Egypt’s support for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” emphasizing the need for a permanent, just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered a strong rebuke of Trump’s statements on Wednesday.
“We will not allow the rights of our people to be infringed upon, for which we have fought for many decades and made great sacrifices to achieve them,” Abbas said. “These calls represent a serious violation of international law, and peace and stability will not be achieved in the region, without the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967, on the basis of the two-state solution.”
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry also responded to the proposal, saying Wednesday in a statement, in part, that it “affirmed its categorical rejection of infringement on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and attempts to displace them and called for the need to stop settlement activities that threaten regional stability and undermine opportunities for peace and coexistence.”
“The Ministry urged the international community, the United Nations and the Security Council to assume their responsibilities and put an end to illegal practices that contravene international law,” the ministry said.
Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and which is not part of the Palestinian Authority, also condemned Trump and called on the president to retract his “irresponsible statements.”
“We call on the U.S. administration and Trump to retract the irresponsible statements that contradict international laws and the natural rights of our people,” Hamas said.
“We call on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations to convene urgently to follow up on these dangerous statements. We condemn in the strongest terms and reject Trump’s statements aimed at the United States occupying the Gaza Strip and displacing our Palestinian people from it. We affirm that we, our Palestinian people and its living forces will not allow any country in the world to occupy our land or impose guardianship over our Palestinian people,” the group added.
Europe
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that Italy will look at Trump’s plan for Gaza, while adding that Rome remains in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It seems to me that as far as the evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza is concerned, the response of Jordan and Egypt has been negative, so it seems to me that it is a bit difficult (to implement the plan),” Tajani told the Italian Foreign Affairs Committees of the Lower House and Senate.
“I have said what the Italian position is, then we will see when there are concrete proposals. We are in favor of two peoples, two states. I have said that we are even ready to send Italian soldiers for a mission to reunify Gaza with the West Bank. The government has not changed its mind,” Tajani said.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its “opposition to any forced displacement of Gaza’s Palestinian population, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a factor of major destabilization for our close partners, Egypt and Jordan, and the whole region.”
“France will continue actively promoting the implementation of the two-state solution, which alone can guarantee long-term peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians,” the ministry said in a press release. “Gaza’s future must lie not in the prospect of control by a third State but in the framework of a future Palestinian State, under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas must be disarmed and have no part in the territory’s governance. France will continue to express its opposition to settlement activity — which is contrary to international law — and to any hint of the unilateral annexation of the West Bank.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock issued a statement saying, in part, “A displacement of the Palestinian civilian population from Gaza would not only be unacceptable and in breach of international law. It would also lead to new suffering and new hatred. And so the G7, the European Union and the United Nations have repeatedly made clear from the beginning that Gaza’s civilian population must not be displaced and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or resettled. A solution must not be put in place without consulting the Palestinians. A negotiated two-state solution remains the only solution which will enable both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace, security and dignity. This is also the clear stance taken by the Arab states in the region.”
Israel
Netanyahu, however, seemed supportive of the president’s proposal during the Tuesday press conference and, delivering remarks after Trump, praised the president for his “fresh ideas” to accomplish their goals, which he said included ensuring Gaza is not a threat to Israel.
“I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals,” Netanyahu said.
Benny Gantz, a former military chief and the top political rival of Netanyahu who resigned from Israel’s emergency government in June 2024, wrote on X that Trump’s statement “is further proof of the deep alliance between the United States and Israel.”
“President Trump has shown, and not for the first time, that he is a true friend of Israel and will continue to stand by it on issues important to strengthening its security,” Gantz said. “In his remarks, he presented creative, original and interesting thinking, which must be examined alongside the realization of the goals of the war, and giving priority to the return of all the abductees.”
An Israeli official told ABC News that Netanyahu’s visit with Trump in D.C. on Tuesday “exceeded all our expectations and dreams.”
ABC News’ Hugo Leenhardt, Ayat Al-Tawy, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller, Phoebe Natanson, Kelsey Walsh, Michelle Stoddart and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.
