Crowds slowly take shape as we drive down a long dirt road cutting through Sfax’s famed olive groves.
Dozens of Sub-Saharan African migrants are walking back from La Louza beach on Tunisia’s east central coast. They were headed for the small Italian island of Lampedusa but ended up back where they started – defeated and drained after coming up against the national coast guard.
One of them, Fae Raphael, is yelling with frustration as he walks up to us. They have just been released from detention.
“They are big robbers and big racists. We left by boat and they took our phones, our belongings and our engines,” he shouts.
“We were in the middle of the sea and they took our engines – they left us on the water.”
Many others walking up behind him confirm his account.
“We were swimming in the sea from 8am till 2pm to get to the shore,” says Dossou Mamadou from Ivory Coast. A calmer older man walking back to town with a heavy sense of despair.
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“Right now we can’t afford neither food nor rent. We were evicted and don’t know where to sleep. The only solution was to go to Europe but unfortunately that did not work.” he adds.
A statement by Tunisian President Kais Saeed condemning illegal black migrants has spurred an unprecedented crackdown in recent weeks. Thousands have since faced eviction, unemployment and arrest. Some are taking repatriation flights back to their home countries and others, unable to turn back to the conflict and instability they initially fled, are making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean sea to Europe.
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According to UN data, 12,000 migrants have reached Italy from Tunisia by boat since the start of 2023. Only 1300 migrants made the journey during the same period last year.
This last week, the Tunisian coast guard says they have stopped 80 boats heading for Italy and detained more than 3,000 migrants, confirming at least 29 confirmed dead.
The real death toll is expected to be much higher.
“I have counted 130 dead,” says a trafficker who agreed to speak to us on condition of anonymity.
“There were many catastrophes this week,” he adds shaking his head sadly. He is organising the crossing of his own family in the coming days.
Tunisia has overtaken Libya as the route of choice for migrants illegally crossing the Mediterranean sea to get to European shores. The majority are departing from the beaches closest to the economic capital, Sfax.
Fishermen who have been working these shores since childhood say they have never seen anything like this.
One of them took us out on his boat to show us the route but could not reveal his identity without risking reprisal from the coast guard. Fishermen who have saved drowning migrants have faced charges of abetting illegal migration.
“We have saved many of them as their boats capsized. There are often too many of them for the small vessels to carry so I have to move them onto my boat and take them to shore,” he says.
He says there are more of them dying than anyone can count. Their bodies often float along the water.
“In the mornings when I go out to retrieve my fishing net, I’ll often find a corpse,” he says solemnly.
Just 36 aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday – despite the humanitarian situation in the enclave worsening, Palestinian officials have warned.
According to the Gazan government’s media office, most of the humanitarian supplies were looted and stolen – “as a result of the state of security chaos that the Israeli occupation systematically and deliberately perpetuates”.
Officials say at least 600 truckloads of aid are required on a daily basis, adding: “The needs of the population are worsening.”
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Gaza nurse: ‘We’re rationing care’
A statement released late last night called for “the immediate opening of crossings, and the entry of aid and infant formula in sufficient quantities” – and “condemned in the strongest terms the continuation of the crime of starvation”.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, refuted this – and accused Hamas of “stirring up a slanderous propaganda campaign against Israel”.
He said: “The cruelty of Hamas has no boundaries. While the State of Israel is allowing the entry of humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza, the terrorists of Hamas are deliberately starving our hostages and document them in a cynical and evil manner.
“The terrorists of Hamas are deliberately starving the residents of the Strip as well, preventing them from receiving the aid.”
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Aid drops continue over Gaza
It comes as the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza said its headquarters in Khan Younis were hit by an Israeli strike, killing one staff member and injuring three others.
Footage posted on social media shows a fire broke out in the building.
Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel for a 60-day ceasefire, and a deal for the release of half the hostages still held in Gaza, ended in deadlock last week.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy told the families of the hostages yesterday that he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would end the war.
Image: Steve Witkoff arrives to meet families of hostages in Tel Aviv. Pic: AP
Steve Witkoff claimed that Hamas was willing to disarm to stop the conflict, despite the group’s repeated statements that it would not do so.
In response, Hamas said it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.
After Mr Witkoff’s meeting with the families of the hostages, Hamas released two videos of an emaciated Israeli hostage, Evyatar David, who was abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 and has been held in captivity in Gaza since.
The 24-year-old looked skeletal, with his shoulder blades protruding from his back. He was heard saying that he had not eaten for three days. The distressing videos show him digging his own grave, he said in the footage.
Two videos of an emaciated Israeli hostage, Evyatar David, have been released by Hamas, after US special envoy Steve Witkoff this week met with the families of the hostages.
The now 24-year-old looks skeletal, with his shoulder blades protruding from his back, and says he has not eaten for three days.
The distressing videos show him apparently digging his own grave.
He worked in a restaurant, according to a video posted by Labour Friends of Israel, before he was abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023.
Since then, he has been held in captivity in Gaza, and the videos suggest he is being kept in dark tunnels and surviving on scarce portions of lentils and beans.
Gaza itself is suffering “man-made mass starvation” because of Israel’s blockade on aid to the enclave, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said.
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Image: Evyatar David before he was captured by Hamas. Pic: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
Image: In the video, Evyatar David writes on a hand-made calendar on the wall of a tunnel
In the second video, released on Saturday, Mr David – according to the English subtitles – says: “I haven’t eaten for three days.”
The captions continue as he speaks while in an underground tunnel: “There’s no [sic] enough food. I barely get drinking water.”
The video shows him talking through what he ate in July, which has been recorded on a handmade calendar hung up on the side of an underground Gaza tunnel.
Speaking while under captivity and under duress, he adds: “They give me what they can get.”
At the end of the video, he is digging a hole. The subtitle reads: “This is the grave where I think I’m going to be buried in. Time is running out.”
He then appears to break down, crouching on the floor and leaning his head on his arm while still clinging to the shovel.
Image: A poster released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum with photos of Evyatar David released in 2023, February this year and July
In a statement, his family said: “We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza – a living skeleton, buried alive.
“Our son has only a few days left to live in his current condition.”
They added: “Israel and the international community must oppose Hamas’s cruelty and ensure that our Evyatar immediately receives proper nutrition.
“The intentional starvation, torture, and abuse of Evyatar for propaganda purposes violate even the lowest standards of humanitarian law and basic human decency.”
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Gaza nurse: ‘We’re rationing care’
‘Famine’ looms in Gaza
On Friday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff visited a site where the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been distributing food in Gaza.
The controversial GHF scheme has been widely condemned, including by the UK government, after fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.
According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.
The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IFSPC) this week said a “worst-case scenario of famine” was sinking in across the besieged enclave.
It has also said more than 20,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition since April.
Families of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are concerned they are also starving, and blame Hamas.
On Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry said a further seven Palestinians had died of malnutrition-related causes in the past 24 hours, including a child.
Rescue crews searching for five trapped Chilean miners have discovered a body.
A section of the copper mine had collapsed on Thursday following a strong, 4.2-magnitude tremor.
The remaining four miners are still missing – and rescuers are vowing to continue their search with “strength and hope”.
Image: A man reacts during a vigil at an entrance to El Teniente mine complex. Pic: Reuters/Pablo Sanhueza
Andres Music, general manager of El Teniente mine, said: “This discovery fills us with sadness, but it also tells us that we are in the right place, that the strategy we followed led us to them.”
Crews are trying to drill through 90m (295ft) of rock to reach the trapped miners, but Mr Music said they had not yet made contact with the workers.
Just over a fifth of the blocked underground tunnels have been cleared, with teams hoping to get through about 15m to 20m (49ft to 66ft) every 24 hours using heavy machinery.
He said rescue efforts would continue with increased caution, which could slow progress.