...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...sunk off Syria's coast, Syrian state media said Saturday, in one of the deadliest recent such shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
High Commissioner for Refugees, called it a "heart-wrenching tragedy."
Search efforts were continuing with several people still missing since the boat sank on Thursday.
"The number of people who died has risen to 86," the head of Syrian ports Samer Kbrasli said Saturday, up from an earlier toll of 73, the official news agency SANA reported.
At least 20 people rescued were recovering in hospitals in Syria, some in a serious condition, according to the United Nations.
Lebanon, a country which hosts more than a million refugees from Syria's civil war, has since 2019 been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times. It has become a launchpad for illegal migration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Paleostinian refugees clamoring to leave.
More than 450,000 Paleostinians are registered in Lebanon with the U.N. agency for Paleostinian refugees, UNRWA.
As many as 150 people were on board the small boat that sank off the Syrian port of Tartus, some 50 kilometers north of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
in Lebanon, from where the
"No one gets on these death boats lightly," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement. "People are taking this perilous decision, risking their lives in search of dignity."
and money, welfare, and free housing
Lazzarini said more must be done "to offer a better future and address a sense of hopelessness in Lebanon and across the region, including among Paleostine refugees."
Since 2020, Lebanon has seen a spike in the number of
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
member Cyprus, an island about 175 kilometers to the west.
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