Manado (Indonesia), July 21: Rescuers in Indonesia responding to a ferry that caught fire and killed at least three people said Monday they had rescued 575 people — far more than originally reported — and that two people were still missing.

The KM Barcelona V-A caught fire Sunday in the sea off North Sulawesi province, and initial reports said five people were dead and about 280 rescued, based on the ship’s manifest.

However, by Monday afternoon officials updated the death toll to three, with two missing, and said many more people were aboard than were listed, and that 575 of them were rescued.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat or ferry to differ from the manifest. Such discrepancies can reflect overcrowding and complicate search and rescue efforts, said navy First Adm. Franky Pasuna Sihombing.

The KM Barcelona V-A was making its regular half-day journey between the ports of Melonguane and Manado when it caught fire about midday Sunday, Sihombing said.

A coast guard ship, six rescue vessels and several inflatable boats were deployed in the rescue operation, Sihombing said. The crews pulled many people from the sea and took them to nearby islands, and local fishermen also saved some survivors wearing life jackets as they were drifting in the choppy waters.

Three bodies were recovered, including a pregnant woman, and rescuers were searching for two passengers reportedly still missing, the Manado city Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement.

The ferry’s manifest initially registered only 280 passengers and 15 crew members, but by Monday afternoon the search and rescue agency confirmed that 575 survivors had been rescued, including a 2-month-old baby whose lungs were filled with seawater. The baby is now in a stable condition at a hospital.

The ferry had a capacity of 600 people.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

A speedboat carrying 18 people capsized during a storm July 14, and all its occupants were found rescued by the next day. Earlier in the month, a ferry sank near Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, leaving at least 19 dead and 16 others missing. A two-week search operation involved more than 600 rescuers, three navy ships, 15 boats, a helicopter and divers.

New Delhi, Jul 21: At least 67 people were killed in northern Gaza while waiting for aid deliveries, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, as Israel faces growing criticism over the humanitarian toll of its military campaign, reports the BBC. The incident occurred near a 25-truck UN World Food Programme convoy, which reportedly came under fire shortly after entering the area, BBC reported. The Israeli military acknowledged firing warning shots to disperse what it described as an immediate threat but disputed the reported death toll.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency later updated the number of casualties from Israeli attacks across the enclave to 93, including 80 in northern Gaza. Additional deaths were reported near aid distribution sites in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.

As hunger intensifies, health officials in Gaza have reported rising numbers of people arriving at medical facilities in critical condition due to starvation. At least 18 deaths from famine were recorded over 24 hours. The World Food Programme described the situation as catastrophic, with nearly one in three people going without food for days and tens of thousands of women and children in urgent need of nutritional support.

Hospitals, including Gaza City’s Shifa facility, remain overwhelmed as more bodies are brought in from aid queue shootings and airstrikes. Crowds at aid points are growing increasingly desperate, amid frequent gunfire incidents targeting civilians seeking food, many of them near facilities run by both the UN and the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Meanwhile, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for parts of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, an area previously untouched by ground offensives. Leaflets dropped over the city instructed residents and displaced families to move westward towards al-Mawasi. The move has prompted widespread panic, especially among relatives of Israeli hostages who are feared to be held in the area.

The military has conducted airstrikes in the vicinity but has not yet moved in with ground forces. Israeli sources have suggested that concerns over the presence of hostages have delayed a full incursion. Deir al-Balah is currently home to thousands of displaced people living in makeshift shelters. More than two million people across Gaza have been displaced since the conflict began in October 2023. The worsening humanitarian crisis has drawn international attention. On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate end to hostilities, denouncing the ongoing violence and calling for restraint in the use of force. His comments followed a recent Israeli airstrike that hit Gaza’s only Catholic church.

Dhaka, July 21: At least 19 people, most of them reportedly children, were killed and around 164 injured when a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school building in capital Dhaka Monday afternoon.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media division of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, stated that the pilot of the crashed training aircraft was among the 19 people who lost their lives in the accident.

According to the ISPR, the Bangladesh Air Force’s F-7 BGI training aircraft took off at 1:06 pm, local time on Monday and crashed into the Milestone School and College building in Dhaka’s Uttara around 1.30 PM.

“As you all know, today an F-7 BJI fighter aircraft of the Air Force made a crash landing at approximately 1:00 pm in the two-story school building of our Milestone School and College’s Uttara branch. On the first floor of this two-story building, there were classes for third and fourth graders. On the second floor, there were classes for second and fifth graders. There was a meeting room for the principal’s office next to it. A coaching class was in progress,” Brigadier General Mohammad Zahed Kamal, the Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence, was quoted as saying by Bangladesh’s leading Bengali daily, Prothom Alo.

A Milestone College teacher told ‘The Daily Star’ newspaper that he was standing near the college building when the aircraft hit the front side of the three-storey school building, trapping several students.

“The college teachers and staff rushed to rescue the students. Members of the army arrived shortly afterwards, followed by firefighters who joined the rescue operation,” the newspaper reported.

Members of the Bangladesh Army and eight engines of Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed to the spot and started rescue operations, according to a fire service notification.

Meanwhile, Dhaka Tribune reported that eght units from the Uttara, Tongi, Pallabi, Kurmitola, Mirpur, and Purbachal fire services are working at the scene.

“Videos circulating on social media show several people being rescued with injuries. They were being taken to Uttara Adhunik Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Govt Hospital, Uttara Women’s Medical College, Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital,” the newspaper reported.