Troops join emergency responders in search for missing after flash floods in Valencia, Spain
Clara Margais/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — On the streets of Alfafar on Wednesday, cars and caravans were strewn like toys in the muddy aftermath of the floodwater that had rushed through the Spanish town.
Emergency crews descended on Wednesday on that town and others surrounding Valencia, wading through washed-out neighborhoods, searching homes and looking for missing people following devastating flooding, according to emergency officials.
More than 1,000 troops had been deployed to the province to help with the emergency response, the Military Emergencies Unit, a branch of the Spanish military, said on social media on Wednesday.
The flash floods were caused by heavy rain, which by Wednesday morning had begun “easing off,” according to the country’s meteorological agency
“[B]ut there is still an orange warning in inland Castellón until 2:00 p.m.,” the agency said. “Caution in the northeast of the peninsula and western Andalusia: very heavy showers are possible. Stay informed!”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces conducted what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran on Friday in response to the Iranian missile strikes earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting continued in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with renewed Israeli attacks on Beirut.
Israeli lawmakers look to stop UNRWA operations
Israeli lawmakers are set to discuss two bills intended to end all Israeli cooperation with UNRWA — the United Nations agency that provides assistance to Palestinian refugees.
If the bills pass, UNRWA could be evicted from premises it has held for over 70 years and have its immunities revoked, majorly restricting its ability to deliver health care, education and other resources to Palestinians.
An Oct. 13 letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Israeli ministers warned that the proposed UNRWA legislation could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and restrict aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Israel alleges that UNRWA is compromised by militants, with Israeli intelligence claiming that around 10% of UNRWA’s Gaza workforce — some 1,200 employees — are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Israeli operation in Kamal Adwan Hospital concludes, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it completed its raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip where IDF troops have been waging a major campaign.
The IDF claimed that “a number of terrorists — including Hamas terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre — had barricaded themselves inside the hospital.”
The IDF said its troops arrested around 100 fighters from within the hospital compound, “including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians.”
The IDF said it found “weapons, terror funds and intelligence documents” in the hospital and in the surrounding area.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Iran will not back off in the face of Israeli aggression, Iranian president says
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday his country would stand firm following Israel’s attack on Iran.
“Definitely the free people will not back off in the face of this criminal, blood-thirsty regime. We have always defended the rights of our people and will continue to do so,” Pezeshkian told cabinet members, according to The Associated Press.
Earlier, Iranian state TV reported that Pezeshkian said Iran would respond to Israel “appropriately.”
Israel attacked military targets in Iran on Saturday in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles Iran fired on Israel earlier this month, marking the first time the IDF has openly attacked Iran.
Pezeshkian also warned tensions will escalate if Israel’s aggressions and crimes continue.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Iran calls for UN Security Council meeting after Israel’s retaliatory attack
The U.N. Security Council will meet Monday at Iran’s request after Israel’s retaliatory attack against the country, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. confirmed to ABC News.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Israel’s retaliatory attack a “serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a flagrant breach of international law,” in a letter requesting the U.N. Security Council meeting.
The letter from Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sent to the UNSC’s current president and U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.
(TEL AVIV, Israel and GAZA STRIP) — The situation in northern Gaza is “beyond horrific” as people experience intense levels of hunger and overcrowded hospitals struggle to care for patients amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, international aid organizations warn.
Last week, Israeli forces ordered evacuations of several regions in the north, including Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia, as they work to surround Hamas fighters who are allegedly in the area.
Medical staff in the north say they are getting calls from all over northern Gaza asking for help, but ambulances are unable to reach the injured.
“The situation is beyond horrific and is very difficult and indescribable,” Dr. Taghreed Al-Imawi, a member of the Palestinian NGO Juzoor for Health and Social Development and an OB-GYN doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said in a statement. “We have seen more than 23 pregnant women among the injured coming to the hospital since last week, wounded either by shrapnel or gunfire, suffering from fractures.”
Kamal Adwan was one of three hospitals that doctors say were ordered to evacuate last week, but medical staff have refused to do so. The Israel Defense Forces has not confirmed if hospitals were ordered to evacuate.
In an audio message sent in Arabic to ABC News, Dr. Eid Sabah, the director of the nursing department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, said the maternity ward is overflowing with children who were transferred from the ICU to accommodate the growing number of patients.
“Medical supplies are dwindling to nothing — especially medical supplies related to surgery, maternity and critical care,” he said. “This is very dangerous and hard. The medical staff is exhausted and are not enough to cover critical patient care. They work 24/7 nonstop.”
He went on, “We only have seven or eight beds in the critical care ward. This is terrifying. Patients on artificial respirators are suffering … we emphasize that we don’t have food. The medical staff can’t eat, and they have to take care of suffering patients.”
Gazans in the north say they are cut off from access to food, medicine and clean drinking water, and are unable to feed their families.
“We have not gotten any food or water for the past 11 days, the suffering is getting worse by the day,” Ismail, a father of two currently in the vicinity of Jabalia, said through the nonprofit organization CARE International. “All the necessities for survival are lacking here in the north, no hospitals, no safe place, no safe drinking water, no medications for our children.”
A new report released Thursday from the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative warned that the risk of famine persists across the entire Gaza Strip, adding that the “worst case scenario may materialize.”
If humanitarian aid delivery continues to be restricted, concerning levels of food insecurity and malnutrition will intensify, the IPC said.
The entire Gaza Strip has been classified as Phase 4 under the IPC, meaning there are large food consumption gaps that “are reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality” and that only emergency strategies can mitigate those gaps.
Nearly 133,000 people, or about 6% of the population, are classified as Phase 5, the highest stage of food insecurity. The report estimates the number of people classified as Phase 5 — the equivalent to famine levels of starvation — is expected to triple between November 2024 and April 2025, with the north and Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt, being the most affected.
Although there was a temporary surge in humanitarian aid being delivered between May and August 2024, September had the lowest volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza since last March.
“This sharp decline will profoundly limit food availability and the ability of families to feed themselves and access services in the next few months,” the IPC report said.
The report also warned that about 60,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children ages 6 months to under 5 years old are expected to occur between September 2024 and August 2025 without significant intervention. Of those cases, 12,000 are predicted to be severe acute malnutrition.
The Israeli government has denied that conditions causing malnutrition exist inside Gaza and has said it works with international organizations to ensure necessary aid crosses the border into Gaza from Israel.
(LONDON and ROME) — Five bodies have been recovered from the superyacht that sunk off the Sicilian coast, ABC News has confirmed, with the final missing passenger’s body also now located inside the vessel.
The fifth body had been brought to shore as of early Thursday morning. Two bodies were brought ashore on Wednesday morning, according to the Italian coast guard, while two other bodies were recovered later on Wednesday.
The body of the final missing passenger — believed to be the 18-year-old daughter of the yacht’s owner, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch — has now also been located inside the yacht, though has not yet been brought to shore.
Mike Lynch’s body is believed to have been among those already recovered from the yacht, though the identities of the dead have not been officially confirmed.
Rescue teams are facing a “very hard” operation to find those still missing after the superyacht sunk on Monday, a spokesperson for the onsite fire brigade teams told ABC News.
Luca Cari said on Wednesday that the rescue operation for the people missing from the U.K.-flagged Bayesian was ongoing. The vessel was lost early on Monday in stormy weather around half a mile from the fishing village of Porticello, close to the city of Palermo.
Fifteen people were rescued alive in the immediate aftermath while one body was previously recovered.
“For us, it remains a rescue operation,” Cari told ABC News Wednesday morning, prior to the recovery of the five bodies, when asked if emergency services were transitioning to a recovery operation.
Asked if there was any hope that the missing may be surviving thanks to air pockets inside the sunk vessel, Cari responded: “One can never exclude anything but it seems rather improbable.”
Cari said that 12 of the 18 divers leading rescue efforts on Wednesday are specialized divers who have extensive experience working inside caves.
Divers have been operating inside the yacht for two days, he added.
“But the job is very hard because there are large obstacles and [we] have to work in very narrow spaces,” he said.
“It’s a long process and we can only operate in short spells,” Cari added.
Divers have to be rotated constantly, with each only able to stay underwater for around 12 minutes, he said.
Two Americans — Christopher and Neda Morvillo — were among the missing, ABC News confirmed on Tuesday.
Christopher Morvillo is a partner at law firm Clifford Chance and represented Lynch in his recent fraud case brought by Hewlett Packard. He is a former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Anne Elizabeth Judith Bloomer are also among the six missing passengers.
