Boat with Somalis documents abandoned in Israel

An empty migrant boat washed up on Israel's Mediterranean shore on October 1, 2023 (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)

ISRAEL - A boat with belongings and documentation of three Somalian citizens was found on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea within the coastline of Israel on Sunday, authorities in the Middle Eastern nation said, adding that "there was nobody in the abandoned boat.

The abandoned boat, Jerusalem Post reports, was found in the dinghy near the town of Natanya, and police have since started investigating the incident, with the aim of finding occupants. All indications are, that the boat might have capsized with a number of individuals, police said.

Police said they were searching the waters for signs of survivors and released a photograph of the boat, although it appears likely that the passengers have drowned. What looked like clothing, an air pump and several makeshift, inflatable lifebuoys were among the items that covered the boat’s floor.

A scrutiny of the documents shows that among those missing are a three-year-old girl. Also found were documents of Turkish citizens whose whereabouts are still unknown, police said, in a bizarre incident that is now under active investigation.

Senior police officials raised a security issue, questioning how a boat carrying foreign bodies could have made it into Israeli waters. “Terrorists could just as well have arrived and carried out an attack,” Israeli media reported a senior police official saying. “Where is the navy? They should have gotten on top of it.”

Maritime migration statistics stagger throughout the Mediterranean region, rarely reaching Israel's shoreline, Jerusalem Post adds.

Maritime migration statistics stagger throughout the Mediterranean region, rarely reaching Israel According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, more than 187,000 people crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, and the group has recorded 2,093 deaths along the central Mediterranean route.

Boat accidents are common in the Mediterranean Sea given the influx of immigrants from Africa, particularly those from war-torn nations like Somalia. For the last three decades, Somalia has been battling with instability, with civil war dominating for decades before the emergence of Al-Shabaab militants.

Thousands of Somalis have been running away from the Horn of Africa nation due to the Al-Shabaab menace but the government has heightened operations against the Al-Qaeda-linked group. The Al-Shabaab have lost significant territories across the country following the activation of military operations against them.

GAROWE ONLINE