Indian leader Narendra Modi has arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where he is set for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that will be keenly watched in Russia as its assault on its neighbor grinds on.

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko confirmed Modi’s arrival in a post on Telegram Friday.

Modi’s visit, the first by an Indian leader since Ukrainian independence, comes just weeks after he traveled to Moscow in a symbolic first overseas trip of his new term as leader, where he held talks with President Vladimir Putin that were criticized by Kyiv.

New Delhi has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and peace in Ukraine but has refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion as it seeks to maintain relations with Moscow – a major supplier of its arms and a longstanding partner it sees as key to balancing its strained relationship with China.

India has also acted as an economic lifeline for Russia, ramping up purchases of its crude oil after countries around the world slapped sanctions on Moscow, isolating it economically.

India overtook China as the world’s biggest importer of Russian oil last month, according to Reuters, citing data from trade and industry sources.

The Indian leader’s arrival in Kyiv — a day ahead of Ukraine’s independence day — follows his two-day trip to Poland, where he elevated India’s ties with the NATO member. Referencing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East during a press conference in Warsaw, Modi reiterated India’s stance that “no problem can be solved on the battlefield.”

“We support dialogue and diplomacy for the early restoration of peace and stability. For this, India, along with its friendly countries, is ready to provide all possible support,” Modi said Thursday speaking alongside Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.

Tusk praised Modi’s “intention to help end the war in Ukraine in a quick, peaceful and fair manner.”

‘Landmark visit’

Modi’s visit to Ukraine also comes at a key inflection point in the two-and-a-half-year war, as Ukrainian forces earlier this month launched an unprecedented offensive into Russian territory that Moscow is scrambling to counter.

Zelensky and Kyiv officials are urgently working to expand global backing for their peace formula, which is predicated on the withdrawal of Russian troops from their land. The upcoming US presidential election has raised concerns that crucial American backing could be cut if Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has been critical of NATO and US support for Kyiv, is elected.

Ukraine, throughout the war, has sought to convince countries that maintain close relationships with Russia — such as India and China — to push Putin toward Kyiv’s terms for peace.

But while India attended a Kyiv-backed international peace summit in Switzerland in June, it stopped short of endorsing the gathering’s communique, saying that resolution requires a “sincere and practical engagement between the two parties to the conflict.”

During his visit to Ukraine, Modi is expected to discuss with Zelensky what India’s Foreign Ministry described as “the entire gamut of bilateral relations,” including trade, infrastructure and defense.

“This landmark visit, of course, takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which will also form part of discussions,” the ministry’s secretary for the West, Tanmaya Lal, said Monday.

The Ukrainian presidential office said Modi and Zelensky would “discuss issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation” and that documents would be signed.

Officials from both countries have in recent months expressed interest in restoring trade, which has dropped during the war, according to annual data from Ukraine.

Modi and Zelensky have met twice on the sidelines of G7 summits since the start of the war, including in June in Italy.

Zelensky last month condemned Modi’s meeting with Putin, which coincided with a Russian assault on several Ukrainian cities and a deadly strike on a children’s hospital.

Then, the Ukrainian leader described Modi’s rapport with Putin as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Modi did not directly address the strikes at the time, but he made what appeared to be some of his most critical comments to date on the war, saying “any person who believes in humanity is troubled when there are deaths, especially when innocent children die.”

He also called for a “path to peace through dialogue.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

“When we’re building something, we’re sort of alone. And to be with others like ourselves is just so affirming, and nourishing, and wonderful,” Elevate Prize Foundation founder Joe Deitch explained. “We can learn from each other. We can get that spark and have that ‘aha’ moment. And that’s what all this is about.”

“The work that we’re doing is difficult work. We’re trying to solve big challenges, address major and systemic problems,” he said. “Having community, being able to talk about what we’re dealing with, and to share in those challenges is really empowering.”

At the summit, the Elevate Prize Foundation announced a concept they spent years developing called the Whole Leader. The idea is that leaders need to prioritize both self-care and community care. By helping the Heroes take care of themselves and avoid burnout, it will enhance their ability to help others – a top priority for Elevate.

“Self-care is something that’s hard to come by in the social impact space,” Elevate Prize Foundation CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram said. “It feels selfish; it feels not necessary to the urgent struggles that are in front of us.”

“As a nonprofit leader, we are always going, going, going. We don’t think about ourself,” he said.

“I believe it’s such a central aspect of our ability to have self-reflection and self-inquiry, to connect to ourselves to be able to connect to other people,” Pearce said.

Self-care was not the only item on the agenda. Elevate also provided crucial lessons aimed at expanding the Heroes’ reach and taking their life-changing work to the next level. That included sessions on nonprofit finances, board management, and strategies for sharing their stories.

“It’s important to raise and amplify positive things that are happening in the world,” she said. “With everything that’s happening now, I think some folks just wanna feel a sense of hope.”

For Elevate founder Joe Deitch, the summit is part of the foundation’s efforts to ignite the purpose and passion that exists in all of us.

“It’s about awakening the hero within,” he said. “By making good famous, we take good further. We can inspire the whole world. We can let people know that they too can do something.”

One of the world’s busiest harbors became the scene of a dramatic rescue operation Friday after a young humpback whale was spotted with fishing gear tangled around its tail.

Rescuers were first alerted to the 13-meter whale in Sydney Harbour on Thursday afternoon when volunteer rescue group ORRCA received a call on its rescue hotline.

Crews from the New South Wales large whale disentanglement team took up the chase and attached a GPS tracker to the whale, but the device fell off soon after.

The operation paused overnight when the sun went down, but the whale was spotted again in the harbor early Friday morning and the chase resumed.

Local media streamed live video from a helicopter circling overhead as the rescuers tried to get close enough to cut the gear loose. Video showed the whale’s dark silhouette beneath the water, as it popped up occasionally to thrash its tail.

“The challenge with that whale was that it had so much energy,” said disentanglement team leader Luke McSweeney. “It took quite a long time for us to tire it out so that we could get in and do that cut safely.”

Rescuers in rubber boats tried to slow the whale down by attaching orange floats, increasing its resistance through the water. Once they got close enough, they used specialized cutting equipment – blades attached to poles – to cut it free.

“Once it was cut free, it certainly took off free swimming, and really looked fantastic,” said Ben Khan, area manager for New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service.

Humpback whales migrate past Sydney on a route known as the “humpback highway,” said wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta. Along the way, sometimes they get caught up in fishing gear.

“The disentanglement team have done an undoubtedly amazing job. It’s a very dangerous task and one that’s very unpredictable,” said Pirotta.

“Every single whale entanglement is different, and unfortunately, whale entanglement happens globally, but we tend to see it here in Australia annually when we have humpback whales in our waters migrating,” she said.

The whole operation took place in the middle of one of the main thoroughfares through Sydney Harbour, where ferries regularly cross from Circular Quay to Manly.

Authorities set up an exclusion zone, warning vessels to stay away, but there was no impact on cross-harbor commutes, according to government officials.

“We managed to do the whole operation without any disruption to passenger services and timetable ferries, which is an excellent outcome as well,” said Shane Davey from NSW Maritime.

After it was freed, the whale was seen swimming south, out of the harbor.

“Now that it has been disentangled, hopefully it continues south,” said Davey.

Guns swinging from their hips, two soldiers in black combat boots and green tactical clothing appear to wire explosives to pumps at the Canada Water reservoir in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Moments later, an orange blaze tears through the critical facility in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, as ribbons of grey smoke erupt into the sky.

The reservoir could hold 3 million liters of water and was central to the treatment and distribution of water in the Rafah Governate, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), providing water for 150,000 people prior to October 7, when the war began.

It added that it examines reports of videos posted to social media and handles them with disciplinary measures. The IDF said the incident was under review by the Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, “an independent investigative mechanism outside the chain of command entrusted with investigating exceptional events in warfare.”

There have been many water facilities damaged or destroyed by Israel’s 10-month-long assault in Gaza, according to the UN and various other international bodies, compounding the civilian population’s suffering, risking the spread of disease and leading human rights experts to accuse Israel of using water supply as a weapon.

“IHL is meant to protect against indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population or the objects they depend upon (for) survival,” he said.

Even before the controlled explosion in late July, the Israeli siege drained fuel and electricity supplies needed to power the Canada Water reservoir and other water systems in the city, according to Rafah’s mayor, Ahmed Al-Sofi, causing severe shortages.

The amount of water available in Gaza works out at 4.74 liters of water (1 gallon) per person per day, Oxfam reported in July, adding that this is “just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush.” The international nonprofit has accused Israel of using water as a “weapon of war,” saying Palestinians in Gaza have “almost no water to drink, let alone to bathe, cook, or clean.”

Extreme summer heat in Gaza is making a desperate shortage of water even worse for Palestinians already stalked by famine and struggling with repeated displacement.

Israel’s war in Gaza has reduced supplies of fuel, chlorine and spare parts, stifling water production, purification and sewage pumping, according to the UN. Around 70% of all water and sanitation facilities in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, the WASH Cluster, a United Nations-led group that coordinates humanitarian efforts for water, sanitation and hygiene, said on July 24, citing satellite analysis from the UN Satellite Centre.

More than 1.7 million cases of infectious diseases have been recorded in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health there. Traces of the highly infectious polio virus – transmitted through faeces, and contaminated water or food – were found in a 10-month-old child in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah earlier this month. World Health Organization (WHO) testing discovered the virus in sewage samples in Gaza in July, putting thousands of Palestinians at risk of contracting a disease that can cause paralysis.

After the Gaza Ministry of Health declared a polio epidemic last month, the WHO warned that ongoing Israeli bombardment had stifled vaccination efforts in Gaza. They are now calling for a halt to the fighting to allow for an effective vaccination drive.

Widower Alaa Riyad says he treks many miles every day under the glare of the sun to collect water for his family, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Israeli attacks in the strip have killed more than 40,200 Palestinians and injured about 93,000 since the war started, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The Israeli military launched its aerial and ground assault in Gaza after the militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and abducting more than 250, according to Israeli authorities.

‘Near complete destruction of all water infrastructure’

Gaza’s water crisis has been building for decades. In 2017, the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, said that 95% of water from Gaza’s sole aquifer was “unfit for human consumption,” due to over-extraction, seawater infiltration and sewage contamination.

In 2021, about 90% of Gaza’s water came from groundwater wells drawing water from that aquifer, according to the Palestinian Water Authority. The remaining 10% came mostly from desalination plants and Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, via three pipelines.

“What we’re seeing so far… is the near-complete destruction of all water infrastructure, which includes water pumping stations, water wells, the whole piping system in Gaza,” Zwijnenburg said. “The few functioning pumps that are still operating, the quality of the water is so bad… (But) people have no choice but to drink it.”

Within the first week of the war, Saaed Al-Madhoun, an emergency response manager for the humanitarian agency CARE International, was forced to flee an Israeli incursion with his family near their home in Gaza City, which was later flattened by bombardment.

The aid worker is haunted by “constant fear and uncertainty,” as the threat of Israeli attacks loom over his wife and five children, aged between 1 and 13 years old. They are displaced in miserable conditions in Deir al-Balah, where the entire family survives on just 20 liters of water per day – less than the minimum of 3 liters per person needed for survival, according to UNICEF.

‘Completely miserable’ conditions in tent camps

The Israeli offensive has displaced up to 1.9 million people – nearly the entire population – in Gaza, according to the UN. People in sprawling tent camps say they can barely access potable water or sanitation facilities in areas polluted by raw sewage and teeming with bugs. Women endure several menstrual cycles without washing, according to the UN. Others queue in the heat to use toilets at overwhelmed hospitals – or risk being chased by dogs to use washrooms in the middle of the night. The UN previously recorded one improvised shelter with only 25 toilets for 14,000 people inside and 59,000 outside.

“We get the water supposedly clean and drinkable,” he said. “But gastrointestinal diseases and intestinal diseases occur… We do not know that it is unclean until after we use it,” he said.

“Obtaining clean water is difficult. Getting water for bathing is more difficult. Finding a toilet to relieve oneself is also very difficult.”

Muslims cannot find enough water to make ablution before prayer, a necessity for those seeking moments of relief through faith.

Children suffer from skin rashes, expectant mothers face stillbirth risk

Asma struggles to distract her children from the stinging pain of blisters and itchiness of head lice. The Palestinian mother is staying with seven relatives in Deir al-Balah, where insects crawl between the folds of their tent.

“My children are sick, and we can’t even find medical treatment,” she added. “We have no shampoo, or detergent to wash our clothes… What are we supposed to do?”

Chronic water shortages will compound “all the existing fragility” among the population, according to Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, especially for the most vulnerable.

The stress of war paired with water shortages increases the risk of stillbirth, pre-term delivery and blood clots for pregnant women in Gaza, Haj-Hassan said. Breastfeeding women are less likely to produce enough milk for newborns, potentially causing malnourishment. Those who can access sparse supplies of powdered infant formula may not find clean water to make up bottles, compounding the risk of illness, Haj-Hassan added.

Sustained restrictions on aid

In some areas, water has risen from $7 for 1,000 liters (about 264 gallons) to $45 to $50, Haj-Hassan said. Hamouda, the father-of-three displaced in Deir al-Balah, said the daily cost of water for him and his family has risen from one-third of a dollar in October to $2.

“For nine months, we have been enduring the ongoing water crisis… I hope there will be a solution to the water problem because I can no longer handle it. I am mentally and physically exhausted,” he said in July.

A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday, the meteorological office said, spraying red-hot lava and smoke in its sixth outbreak since December.

The total length of the fissure was about 3.9 kilometers (2.42 miles) and had extended by 1.5 kilometers in about 40 minutes, the Icelandic Met Office, which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes, said in a statement.

Livestreams from the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula showed glowing hot lava shooting up from the ground, their bright-yellow and orange colors set in sharp contrast against the dark night sky.

“The impact is limited to a localized area near the eruption site. It does not present a threat to life and the area nearby was evacuated,” Iceland’s ministry for foreign affairs said on social platform X.

The lava was not flowing toward the nearby Grindavik fishing town, whose nearly 4,000 residents have been mostly evacuated since November, the Met office said.

The eruption took place on the Sundhnukar crater row east of mountain Sylingafell, partly overlapping the other recent outbreaks on the Reykjanes peninsula, in a volcanic system which has no central crater but erupts by opening giant cracks in the ground.

Studies had shown magma accumulating underground, prompting warnings of new volcanic activity in the area located just south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.

The most recent eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula, home to some 30,000 people or nearly 8% of the country’s population, ended on June 22 after spewing fountains of molten rock for 24 days.

The eruptions show the challenge faced by the island nation of nearly 400,000 people as scientists warn that the Reykjanes peninsula could face repeated outbreaks for decades or even centuries.

Since 2021, there have been nine eruptions on the peninsula, following the reactivation of geological systems that had been dormant for 800 years.

In response, authorities have constructed man-made barriers to redirect lava flows away from critical infrastructure, including the Svartsengi power plant, the Blue Lagoon outdoor spa and the town of Grindavik.

Flights were unaffected, Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport said on its web page, but the nearby Blue Lagoon luxury geothermal spa and hotel said it had shut down and evacuated its guests.

Volcanic outbreaks in the Reykjanes peninsula are so-called fissure eruptions, which do not usually disrupt air traffic as they do not cause large explosions or significant dispersal of ash into the stratosphere.

Iceland, which is roughly the size of the US state of Kentucky, boasts more than 30 active volcanoes, making the north European island a prime destination for volcano tourism — a niche segment that attracts thrill seekers.

Bangkok, Thailand — A small passenger plane on a domestic flight in Thailand crashed Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from the main airport in the capital, Bangkok, the country’s civil aviation authority announced. It appeared that all nine people aboard had been killed.

Rescuers found no survivors at the crash site in a mangrove swamp in Chachoengsao province about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the airport, reported Thai media, which said seven passengers and two pilots had been listed as being on board.

After about an hour of searching, rescuers found badly shattered body parts in the difficult, swampy terrain, said a spokesperson for the provincial government.

The names of those on board were not immediately available. However, the spokesperson said they included five Chinese tourists from Hong Kong, two Thai female crew and the Thai pilot and co-pilot.

The cause of the crash is not yet known.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said the turboprop plane, a Cessna Caravan C208B operated by the Thai Flying Service Company, had departed Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2:46 p.m. Air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft 11 minutes later, when it was an estimated 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the airport.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are cracking down on the sound of women’s voices in public, under a strict new set of vice and virtue laws under the Islamist regime.

The laws were issued Wednesday after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a government spokesman said, and cover aspects of everyday life like public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.

Among the new rules, Article 13 relates to women: It says it is mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public and that a face covering is essential to avoid temptation and tempting others. Clothing should not be thin, tight or short.

Women are also obliged to cover themselves in front of non-Muslim males and females to avoid being corrupted. A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public. It is forbidden for women to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa.

“Inshallah we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,” said ministry spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday, of the new laws.

First formal declaration of vice and virtue laws

The 114-page, 35-article document seen by The Associated Press constitutes the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021, when it also set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice.”

The laws will empower the ministry to be at the frontline of regulating personal conduct, administering punishments like warnings or arrest if enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws.

The laws ban the publication of images of living beings, threatening an already fragile Afghan media landscape; the playing of music; the transportation of solo female travelers; and the mixing of men and women who are not related to each other. The laws also oblige passengers and drivers to perform prayers at designated times.

According to the ministry website, the promotion of virtue includes prayer, aligning the character and behavior of Muslims with Islamic law, encouraging women to wear hijab, and inviting people to comply with the five pillars of Islam. It also says the elimination of vice involves prohibiting people from doing things forbidden by Islamic law.

Last month, a U.N. report said the ministry was contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans through edicts and the methods used to enforce them.

It said the ministry’s role was expanding into other areas of public life, including media monitoring and eradicating drug addiction.

“Given the multiple issues outlined in the report, the position expressed by the de facto authorities that this oversight will be increasing and expanding gives cause for significant concern for all Afghans, especially women and girls,” said Fiona Frazer, the head of the human rights service at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.

The Taliban rejected the U.N. report.

Panama will deport over 100 people from China, India, Ecuador and Colombia, in a widening crackdown on the number of migrants traveling north through Central America, President Jose Mulino announced on Thursday.

The deportation flights are part of Panama’s partnership with the US that aims to discourage irregular migration northward – a growing phenomenon in recent years.

Panama plans to send 70 people to India on September 3, and an unspecified number of Chinese migrants, Mulino said without providing details.

Flights carrying dozens of Ecuadorians and Colombians will also depart in the coming days, he said, noting that Ecuadorians represent the second-largest group of migrants in the region, after Venezuelans.

Twenty-nine Colombians were already sent back on an earlier flight under the same program.

A growing number of US-bound migrants have been crossing into Panama from the Darién Gap, a treacherous rainforest region connecting South and Central America. The Biden administration has been trying to push migrants back from the US southern border by setting up processing centers in Latin America and encouraging neighboring nations to step up border enforcement measures.

So far this year, more than 230,000 people have entered Panama through the Darién.

This marks a 30% increase in crossings compared to the same period from January to August 2023, Panama’s migration agency chief Roger Mojica said Tuesday.

Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved.

There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died.

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that initial forensic tests suggest that all six hostages had been shot, but it has not determined whether the gunshot wounds were the cause of death. IDF also underlined that the findings are preliminary.

The IDF said four additional bodies were found next to the bodies of the six hostages, which were believed to be those of the Hamas militants who had been holding the hostages, but that no evidence of shooting was found on their bodies.

The IDF did not name any alleged shooter.

But standing outside Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Daniel said the IDF’s announcement that all six hostages had been shot underlines the potential danger in rescue operations that depend on force.

Israeli outlet Ynet had reported on Tuesday that an IDF preliminary assessment was that the hostages may have died due to suffocation after the IDF hit a nearby Hamas target and carbon dioxide flooded the tunnel where they were being held.

Asked in a news conference on Tuesday whether the IDF had killed the hostages, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not clarify whether the hostages had been killed as a result of Israeli military action. Instead, Hagari referred back to a statement he made in June, when he had said the “the hostages were killed while our forces were operating in Khan Younis.”

The deaths have renewed urgency for a ceasefire among the protesters in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Omer, 46, who was at the protest with his two daughters, said that he believed the six hostages “could have been saved a lot earlier.” He accused the Israeli government of repeatedly stalling on inking a deal with Hamas, which he warned would only led to Israel paying a higher price for an agreement that could have been secured earlier.

A ceasefire would also bring relief to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the besieged enclave as Israel forges ahead with its military operation. The United Nations estimated in July that up to 1.9 million people in the strip have been displaced, almost the entire population of Gaza.

But there is skepticism about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to strike a deal given fierce opposition from far-right ministers in his coalition. The Israeli prime minister’s political future largely depends on his far right coalition partners – several of whom have already threatened to leave the government and cause its collapse if he agrees to the deal.

“Maybe Hamas kidnapped them (the hostages), but the one we can accuse of murdering them is Benjamin Netanyahu,” Omer said, adding that the prime minister is “the only one responsible.”

A group representing the families of Israeli hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said in a Thursday statement that the forensic tests that found gunshot wounds amounted to “further proof of the cruelty of the terrorists” who held them in captivity.

The Forum also reiterated criticism of Israeli authorities, saying that the recovery of bodies “is no achievement.”

“It is a testimony of the complete failure to reach a deal in time, as six hostages who were supposed to return alive have returned in coffins,” the Forum said.

The recovered bodies were identified by Israeli officials on Tuesday as belonging to Yoram Metzger, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Chaim Peri, Nadav Popplewell and Yagev Buchshtab. All but Munder had been announced dead in recent months by the Israeli military.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF and ISA had entered Hamas tunnels in a “complex operation” to retrieve their bodies.

Munder was taken along with his wife, daughter and grandson, who were later freed during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas in November. Munder’s son, Roee, was killed during the attack.

Nine-year-old Ohad Munder told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan 11 on Tuesday that the death of his grandfather and the other hostages “shouldn’t have happened.”

“There have already been many times when there were negotiations for (a) deal… and then they say no – and in the end they don’t want it, and always regret it at the last minute. All the hostages could have returned alive even on the first day. They could have brought back grandfather and all the other hostages,” Ohad said.

There are currently 109 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza, including 36 believed to be dead, according to data from the Israeli Government Press Office.

A Greek-flagged oil tanker carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil poses an “environmental hazard” after it came under attack from projectiles and arms fire in the Red Sea.

The 25-person crew of the Sounion oil tanker was rescued after the attack by a vessel from Eunavfor Aspides, a European Union defensive maritime security operation aimed at protecting merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf.

The vessel, damaged and without engine power, is now anchored between Yemen and Eritrea, a maritime security source told Reuters on Thursday. Delta Tankers said it is working on a plan to move the tanker to a safer destination for further checks and repairs.

The vessel was approached at around 3 a.m. local time Wednesday morning by “two small craft” with around 13 to 15 people on board, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported. There was a “brief exchange of small arms fire” before the vessel was struck by at least three projectiles, the report added.

All Sounion crew members are in good health, Greece’s shipping ministry said in a statement, but the boat has suffered “material damage.”

The 150,000 tons of crude oil on board the ship now pose a navigational and environmental hazard in the region, Eunavfor Aspides said in a statement. “It is essential that everyone in the area exercises caution and refrains from any actions that could lead to a deterioration of the current situation,” the naval force added.

Eunavfor Aspides said all those on board the boat were transported to Djibouti, in east Africa, which was the nearest safe port of call. Before it reached the Sounion, the EU’s navy crew “destroyed” an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) that it said “posed an imminent threat to the ship and the crew.” The naval force did not say who was behind the attack.

Greece’s shipping ministry called the attack on the oil tanker a “flagrant violation of international law and a serious threat to the safety of international navigation.”

Attacks on container vessels in the Red Sea have been wreaking havoc on one of the world’s most important trade routes for months. Iran-backed Houthi militants stepped up their attacks on ships in late November last year, in retaliation for Israel’s war against Hamas.