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At least 26 migrants died Wednesday when two boats sank off the coast of Italy’s Lampedusa island, with around 10 others still missing, the coastguard and UN officials said.Around 60 people were rescued after the sinkings in the central Mediterranean, a stretch between North Africa and Italy described by the UN as the world’s most dangerous sea crossing for migrants.The two boats had left Tripoli, Libya, earlier in the day, according to the Italian coastguard.It said one of the boats started taking on water, causing people to climb onto the other boat, which itself then capsized.”Currently 60 people have been rescued and disembarked in Lampedusa, and (there are) at least 26 victims. The toll is still provisional and being updated,” the coastguard said in a statement.Italy’s Red Cross, which manages Lampedusa’s migrant reception centre, said the survivors included 56 men and four women, updating a previous toll of 22 dead.Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the UN’s migration agency (IOM), said around 95 people had been on the two boats. Given how many had been saved, “approximately 35 victims are feared dead or missing”, he wrote on social media.- ‘Inhumane’ traffickers -Among the first to be transported to the Lampedusa mortuary were the bodies of a newborn, three children, two men and two women, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.Lampedusa, just 90 miles (145 kilometres) off the coast of Tunisia, is often the first port of call for people trying to reach Europe in leaky or overcrowded boats.In recent years, Italian authorities have sought to intercept the boats at sea before they arrive.It was a helicopter from Italy’s financial police that spotted a capsized boat and several bodies in the water on Wednesday, about 14 nautical miles off Lampedusa, the coastguard said.Five vessels were searching for survivors, including one from the EU’s Frontex border agency, alongside a helicopter and two aircraft, it said.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offered her “deepest condolences” to the victims and vowed to step up efforts to tackle migrant traffickers.Her hard-right government took office in October 2022 vowing to cut the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.As part of this, it has cut deals with North African countries from which migrants embark, providing funding and training in exchange for help in stemming departures. “When a tragedy like today’s occurs, with the deaths of dozens of people in the waters of the Mediterranean, a strong sense of dismay and compassion arises in all of us,” Meloni said in a statement.”And we find ourselves contemplating the inhumane cynicism with which human traffickers organise these sinister journeys.”She said stepping up rescue efforts was not enough to tackle the scourge of trafficking, saying this could be done only by “preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows”.The UNHCR refugee agency said Wednesday that there had been 675 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route so far this year. As of Wednesday, 38,263 migrants have arrived on Italy’s shores this year, according to the interior ministry. A similar number was recorded at the same time last year, but the figure is significantly less than in 2023, when almost 100,000 people had arrived by mid-August.

Lebanese leaders firmly rejected any efforts at foreign interference during a visit by Iran’s security chief Wednesday, with the prime minister saying Beirut would “tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat” after Tehran voiced opposition to plans to disarm Hezbollah.The uncharacteristically blunt remarks hinted at a changed balance of power in a country where Iran has long wielded substantial influence by funding and arming Hezbollah.The visit by Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani comes after the Lebanese government ordered the army to devise plans to disarm the Tehran-backed militant group by the end of the year.Last week, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader had said the Islamic republic was “certainly opposed” to the disarmament plan.”We reject any interference in our internal affairs,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday, adding that “it is forbidden for anyone… to bear arms and to use foreign backing as leverage”, according to a statement from his office.Prime Minister Nawaf Salam was equally firm, saying in a statement: “Lebanon will not accept, in any form, any interference in its internal affairs, and expects from the Iranian side a clear and explicit commitment to respect these principles.”Hezbollah has been a key part of Tehran’s so-called axis of resistance against Israel, but Iran and its allies have suffered a series of blows.Hezbollah experienced devastating losses, including the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, over more than a year of hostilities with Israel that ended with a November 2024 ceasefire. A month later, longtime Syrian ruler and Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad was ousted, depriving Hezbollah of its main conduit for weapons and supplies from Iran.And finally, Israel went to war with Iran itself in June, with the United States stepping in briefly to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.Ever since last year’s war, Hezbollah’s firm grip on Lebanese politics has been slipping.- ‘Grave sin’ -Hezbollah has slammed the government’s new disarmament push as a “grave sin”, while Tehran has also declared its opposition.But in Beirut, Larijani said that no foreign power should give orders to Lebanon, adding that it was not Iran but the United States that was intervening.Lebanon’s cabinet recently considered a US proposal that included a timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament, with Washington pressing Beirut to take action.”Any decision that the Lebanese government makes in consultation with the resistance is respected by us,” Larijani said.”The one who interferes in Lebanese affairs is the one who plans for you, gives you a timetable from thousands of kilometres away. We did not give you any plan.” Salam, however, appeared to make clear the changed nature of the relationship, declaring that “Lebanon’s decisions are made by the Lebanese themselves, who tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat”.”Lebanon, which was the first defender of the Palestinian cause and paid a heavy price in its confrontation with Israel, has no lessons to receive from anyone,” he continued.Iran’s government has long portrayed itself as a defender of the Palestinians, with militant group Hamas in Gaza another member of its axis.- ‘Stand by’ Lebanon -Before the latest war with Israel, Hezbollah was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military. It long maintained it had to keep its arsenal in order to defend Lebanon from attack, but critics accused it of using its weapons for political leverage.In Beirut, Larijani vowed continued Iranian support.”If… the Lebanese people are suffering, we in Iran will also feel this pain and we will stand by the dear people of Lebanon in all circumstances,” Larijani told reporters.In addition to meeting President Aoun and Prime Minister Salam, Larijani was due to sit down with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah.He was also expected to visit the grave of Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli bombing in south Beirut last year.

Turkey’s foreign minister and his Syrian counterpart on Wednesday warned Israel not to stir up chaos in Syria and demanded an end to all external interventions aimed at destabilising the war-torn country. “Certain actors are bothered by the positive developments in Syria,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said after talks with Syria’s Asaad al-Shaibani in Ankara, referring to Israel and Kurdish YPG fighters operational in northeastern Syria. “Israel is currently one of the biggest actors in this dark picture,” he said of its ongoing military incursions since the overthrow of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad late last year.”The emergence of chaos in Syria… appears to have become a priority for Israel’s own national security,” he said. Standing next to him, Shaibani also warned against efforts to foster chaos in Syria.”We’re facing new challenges that are no less dangerous than those we encountered during the years of war, foremost among them are repeated Israeli threats… through airstrikes,” he said. Fidan said efforts to destabilise Syria could be clearly seen in the March bloodshed in the coastal Alawite heartland of Latakia and in the recent deadly violence that gripped the southwestern Druze-majority province of Sweida as well as in the Kurdish-dominated northeast. “The events in Latakia and Sweida and the failure to integrate the YPG (into the Syrian state) are evidence of the challenges and obstacles facing the positive process under way,” he said. Shaibani said foreign actors were exacerbating the unrest within Syria. “We are also confronting multiple foreign interventions, both direct and indirect… (that) push the country toward sectarian and regional strife,” he said without giving details but warning against “any reckless attempts to exploit events here”.During the war, Assad’s government was backed by Russia, Iran and its Lebanon-based militant ally Hezbollah. Fidan said the YPG — part of the US-backed Kurdish-led SDF but seen by Ankara as an extension of PKK militant group — remained a concern over its refusal to integrate into the Syrian state despite a March agreement to do so.The PKK, which fought a decades-long insurgency against Ankara, is currently in the throes of disbanding as part of a peace agreement with the Turkish government. “We have not seen any developments that indicate the organisation has eliminated the threat of armed action” nor sent home the foreign fighters in its ranks, he said. “In an environment where Turkey’s security demands remain unmet, we have no chance of remaining calm,” he warned. 

Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim, famed for his critiques of political repression, neoliberalism and Western hegemony, has died at the age of 88, the culture ministry announced on Wednesday.Ibrahim “passed away today, leaving behind an immortal literary and humanitarian legacy,” Culture Minister Ahmed Fouad Hanno said in a tribute, calling the writer a “pillar of modern Arabic literature”.Born in Cairo in 1937, Ibrahim was famed around the Arab world as a chronicler of social injustice, known for his sparse, documentary-style prose and his fierce independence.His writings — which blurred the line between the personal and the political — captured the struggles of the Arab world in the postcolonial era, particularly those of his native Egypt.Arguably his most famous novel, “Zaat” (1992), tells the story of Egypt’s modern history — from the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952 to the neoliberalism of the 1990s under president Hosni Mubarak — through the eyes of an ordinary, middle-class woman.It was adapted into a prime-time television series in 2013, bringing Ibrahim’s scathing portrayal of power to a new generation of Egyptians in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprising that ousted Mubarak.A dissident through and through, Ibrahim was first jailed for his leftist politics in 1959, under then president Gamal Abdel Nasser.His five years in prison would form the basis for his debut 1966 novel, “That Smell”, which was initially banned.Ibrahim’s renown later saw many of his works translated into English and French.In 2003, he refused to accept a prestigious literary prize from the Mubarak government charging that it “oppresses our people, protects corruption and allows the Israeli ambassador to remain while Israel kills and rapes”.The last was a reference to alleged Israeli abuses in the occupied territories during the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.Among Ibrahim’s most celebrated works are “The Committee” (1981), a Kafkaesque allegory of bureaucracy and surveillance, and “Stealth” (2007), a semi-autobiographical account of his childhood during World War II.Generations of Arab writers found inspiration in his minimalist style, heavy with irony and rooted in everyday life.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had approved the framework for a new offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Hamas condemned what it called “aggressive” Israeli ground incursions in Gaza City.The approval for the expanded offensive comes days after Israel’s security cabinet called for the seizure of Gaza’s largest city, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory.Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir “approved the main framework for the IDF’s operational plan in the Gaza Strip,” a statement released by the army said. Prime Benjamin Minister Netanyahu’s government has not provided a precise timetable for when Israeli troops will enter Gaza City, where thousands have taken refuge after fleeing previous offensives.Ismail Al-Thawabta, director general of the Hamas government media office in Gaza, told AFP on Wednesday that “the Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out aggressive incursions in Gaza City.” “These assaults represent a dangerous escalation aimed at imposing a new reality on the ground by force, through a scorched-earth policy and the complete destruction of civilian property,” he added.Sabah Fatoum, 51, who lives in a tent in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City told AFP by phone that “the explosions are massive” in the area.There are “many air strikes and tanks are advancing in the southern area of Tal al-Hawa with drones above our heads,” she said.”The tanks are still there, and I saw dozens of civilians fleeing” to the west of the city, she added.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Gaza City have intensified in recent days, with the residential neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Sabra hit “with very heavy air strikes targeting civilian homes, possibly including high-rise buildings”.  Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes or fire had killed at least 35 people across Gaza on Wednesday.- ‘Just escaped death’ -AFP footage from Gaza City on Tuesday showed Palestinians fleeing Israeli strikes on the Zeitoun and Asqoola using overladen carts, vans and bikes. “I didn’t bring a mattress or anything and we just escaped death and now we’re running away and we don’t know where to go,” said displaced Palestinian Fidaa Saad.Israel’s plans to expand its offensive into Gaza City come as diplomacy aimed at securing an elusive ceasefire and hostage release deal has stalled for weeks, after the latest round of negotiations broke down in July.Egypt said Tuesday it was working with fellow Gaza mediators Qatar and the United States to broker a 60-day truce “with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees, and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions, without conditions”.Hamas said early Wednesday that a senior delegation had arrived in Cairo for “preliminary talks” with Egyptian officials.Israel’s plans to expand the Gaza war have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition.Reserve and retired pilots who served in the Israeli air force on Tuesday rallied in Tel Aviv to demand an end to the conflict.”This war and expansion will only cause the death of the hostages, death of more Israeli soldiers, and death of many more innocent Palestinians in Gaza,” said Guy Poran, a former Israeli air force pilot. – Dire conditions -UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 235 people including 106 children have died of hunger since the war began in October 2023, with many cases recorded in recent weeks.Netanyahu on Tuesday revived calls to “allow” Palestinians to leave Gaza, telling Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS that “we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave”.Past calls to resettle Gazans outside of the war-battered territory, including from US President Donald Trump, have sparked concern among Palestinians and condemnation from the international community.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel which triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel’s offensive has killed at least 61,722 Palestinians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.