Libya floods: Hope remains survivors can found after Derna dam disaster as ‘cries heard’ beneath rubble
Everyone in Derna is desperate for good news right now after days and days of utter misery and collective, searing suffering.
So, the suggestion there are noises from below ground, under a house encased in mud and rubble, is grasped eagerly.
No matter how unrealistic, plain miraculous and completely staggering this may seem to others, those in Derna want survivors.
Maybe they just need hope, hope that this agony they’re all going through can somehow be assuaged.
We watch as a growing crowd of volunteers, health workers, troops and neighbours rush to the scene as word spreads.
A young volunteer wearing a blue hospital gown tells the fire crews there that he has heard cries from a woman – twice.
“How certain are you,” I ask him.
“I’m sure,” he replies. “100 per cent.”
People involved in the rescue operation are clinging onto hope
People spent hours digging by hand in the desperate hope of finding survivors
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But looking at the patch which was once home to three little girls who were nine, 10 and 11, it’s hard to believe anyone could still be alive under there.
It is a mound of thick mud, so hard and impenetrable, it takes several of those gathered to chip away at the top layer with shovels and pick axes.
It becomes apparent this is all the equipment they have to hand to try to shift the mountain of debris which has been deposited on top of the home.
A crowd of volunteers, health workers, troops and neighbours rushed to the site after news spread of noises beneath the rubble
A young volunteer told fire crew he heard cries from a woman twice at the site
Even the house itself is not thought to be in its original position.
Neighbours are telling the rescue crews that the torrent of water which swept through Derna actually shifted the entire building from its foundations and moved it several metres.
It seems to have been partially protected by another huge building in front and several established palm trees but there are a number of upturned cars around it – and tonnes and tonnes of other debris carpeting it.
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What happened in Derna?
Another man steps forward to say he’s been contacted by a friend of the family who once lived there.
The family friend insists he was phoned by one of the little girls. She says she’s trapped under the house and she’s using her father’s abandoned phone which is somehow still working.
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The chance that a mobile phone might still be working more than a week on from the disaster doesn’t strike them as impossible.
Nor does the idea that a little girl may have somehow be able to make it work in darkness beneath ground.
Hope – even the slightest glimmer of it – fuels this frenetic search which gathers more and more pace and more and more people.
They dig by hands for hours with growing numbers of people taking part, shifting rubble, concrete slabs and pulling out even a fridge from beneath.
They find a cavity and begin shouting down it calling for silence. Someone says they hear a responding bang and celebrations erupt. It generates even more enthusiasm for digging and even more people gather.
People have been digging by hand for hours, shifting rubble, concrete slabs and even pulling out a fridge from beneath.
Volunteers waiting in silence as hope begins to fade
The search goes on by hand until dusk until a mechanical digger – one of the very few – is encouraged to come to the area.
It shifts huge slabs of concrete but still, there’s nothing.
No one has heard a noise for a long time by now. Despondency creeps in and slowly the crowd dissipates. Soon there is just a rump of people still digging by hand.
The search continues by nightfall – but despondency creeps in, as the crowd slowly dissipates, leaving just a handful digging by hand
They slowly move away one by one. In truth it was only hope which fed this search.
The rescue team feel they’ve failed…but with so much stacked against them from the off, in truth they, the little girl and all the people of this city, stood little chance.
Alex Crawford was reporting from the east Libyan port city of Derna with cameraman Jake Britton and producer Chris Cunningham.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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