Features Archives - Page 3 of 34

Israel is ‘Killing’ The Ceasefire on Lebanon

CrossFireArabia
June 21, 2026

The recent intensive Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon and Western Beqaa, which resulted in the killing of at least 83 people and the injury of 141 others, including children and women, highlight a repeated pattern of targeting civilians and civilian objects. These attacks also demonstrate a blatant disregard for multiple ceasefire agreements, violating essential principles of international humanitarian law such as distinction and proportionality, amidst a lack of effective international accountability.

According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, an airstrike in Qennarit, Sidon District, killed seven people and injured 13, including five children and five women. In Sohmar, Western Beqaa, a house was hit, killing four family members and injuring another, with a child trapped under the rubble and waiting for rescue.

These casualties happened during numerous airstrikes on towns and densely populated areas across southern Lebanon and the Western Beqaa from Friday evening to Saturday morning. This highlights the wide geographical reach of the strikes and the danger they pose to civilians. The attacks also raise serious concerns about whether Israeli forces are fulfilling their legal obligation to take all possible precautions to safeguard civilians and minimise harm during military operations.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented extensive evacuation efforts by Lebanese Civil Defence teams, who evacuated 47 people to safety and transported 16 bodies along with 12 injured individuals to hospitals under extremely challenging conditions. This intense escalation occurred simultaneously with a new ceasefire that took effect on Friday at 4:00 p.m., overseen by the United States.

The timing of the airstrikes, many of which were carried out shortly before the ceasefire took effect, while others continued after it took effect, raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment to its obligations under ceasefire agreements. Such conduct undermines the core purpose of these arrangements, namely the protection of civilians and the prevention of further military escalation. It also demonstrates a consistent pattern of escalating military attacks right before ceasefires are implemented or extended, resulting in higher civilian casualties and diminishing trust in agreements meant to safeguard civilians.

These events are not isolated incidents but part of an ongoing pattern of violations since the first ceasefire agreement was implemented on 27 November 2024. This was followed by a temporary 10-day truce announced on 16 April 2026, which was extended by an additional 45 days in mid-May. The persistent military actions and attacks on civilians and civilian objects despite these agreements raise serious concerns about compliance with their legal obligations. They also highlight the critical need for independent and effective investigations to ensure accountability for any grave violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Since the ceasefire, Euro-Med Monitor’s field teams have recorded numerous Israeli violations, including airstrikes, artillery shelling, killings, and injuries in populated areas. Although Israel defends these actions with vague security threat claims, international law does not permit such assertions to override the obligation to respect the principles of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, and the obligation to take all feasible precautions to safeguard civilians.

Israeli officials’ repeated statements about ongoing attacks, regardless of ceasefire agreements, undermine the agreements’ purpose and protection, leaving civilians perpetually vulnerable. The ongoing military actions and violations despite publicly declared understandings raise concerns about Israel’s adherence to its international duties. This situation highlights the critical need for robust monitoring and accountability to ensure compliance and safeguard civilians from the impacts of continued hostilities.

Israel’s ongoing ground incursions and forced evacuation orders, coupled with a widespread and systematic campaign of destruction targeting Lebanese border villages and towns, including residential areas, civilian infrastructure, and essential facilities, exceed legitimate military needs. This behaviour raises serious concerns about violations of core international humanitarian law rules that prohibit the forced displacement of civilians and the destruction of civilian property, unless absolutely required by imperative military necessity.

Furthermore, levelling entire residential neighbourhoods and damaging civilian infrastructure deeply changes the geographic and demographic makeup of these areas. This renders them uninhabitable and denies residents the right to return safely and with dignity, recover their homes, property, and livelihoods. Due to their scale, intensity, and persistent nature, these acts also serve as punitive and retaliatory measures, which are unjustifiable under the special protections granted to civilians during armed conflicts.

The widening scope of military actions and forced displacements is significantly worsening Lebanon’s already severe humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people face harsh living conditions that are far below basic human dignity standards. This crisis is exacerbated by extensive damage to vital infrastructure and the declining capacity of public institutions and humanitarian groups to meet growing needs. These violations have far-reaching effects, threatening essential rights such as housing, healthcare, food, education, and work. Children, women, older people, and persons with disabilities are especially affected, bearing the heaviest burden.

The repeated pattern of attacks on civilians in their homes, including children and women, causing extensive casualties, particularly on the eve of or alongside each ceasefire announcement, requires urgent and concrete measures that go beyond routine condemnations. Effective action is needed to protect civilians, halt hostilities, and activate accountability mechanisms for grave violations of international humanitarian law.

The international community, particularly the states sponsoring the ceasefire process, should apply real and effective pressure on Israel to stop its military activities in Lebanon. Euro-Med Monitor cautions that frequently accepting ceasefire agreements while ongoing bombings persist weakens their original intent, diminishes their legal and humanitarian value, obstructs lasting stability in southern Lebanon, and puts tens of thousands of civilians at risk.

The international community’s frequent use of statements of concern and condemnations, without implementing concrete deterrent measures or engaging international accountability mechanisms, leads to ongoing impunity and diminishes the international legal system’s ability to protect civilians and prevent serious violations.

The international community must activate universal jurisdiction as an essential legal mechanism for prosecuting perpetrators of serious international crimes, ensuring that those responsible are brought before competent national courts in accordance with states’ obligations under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court must, under the Rome Statute, exercise its jurisdiction without delay by opening comprehensive and independent investigations into international crimes committed in Lebanon, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly forced displacement of civilians, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, attacks on protected civilian objects, and the extensive and unjustified destruction of civilian property and infrastructure.

Euro-Med Monitor calls for the activation of relevant independent United Nations mechanisms, such as commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions, to systematically and accurately document grave violations and preserve evidence in accordance with recognised legal standards. This approach ensures the evidence can be used in both international and domestic criminal proceedings.

If legally confirmed, these violations could constitute serious breaches of international humanitarian law, including failure to distinguish between civilians and military targets, disproportionate use of force, and neglect of the duty to take all possible precautions during military operations. They may also violate bans on collective punishment and forced displacement.

Individual criminal accountability is a core element of the international legal framework. The ongoing presence of impunity threatens global peace and security, weakens protections for civilians, and perpetuates a cycle of violations. Therefore, urgent global efforts are needed to activate international justice mechanisms, ensure redress for victims, and prevent future crimes.

Euro-Med Monitor

Features News

“Hay Mr Trump Israel is ‘Eating’ Into Gaza”

marwan
June 18, 2026

Story by Mohamed Ahmed and Abdel Qader Sabbah

GAZA CITY—Mustafa Al-Shawa awoke at 2:30 a.m. on Monday to the sound of gunfire and the rumble of tanks in Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City. When he was finally able to go outside a few hours later, he found two yellow concrete blocks placed in the middle of the street—the Israeli military had moved them at least one hundred meters further west into Gaza where they now lay close to his home.

“They moved the yellow line forward to the Sanafour Junction. It used to be up by Al-Shaaaf Street,” Al-Shawa told Drop Site News. “This is the yellow line,” he said, pointing to the blocks. “There is another yellow line along Salah Al-Din Street that they have moved closer. Enough of what is happening to us. Enough of this suffering.”

Israel has been steadily encroaching further into Gaza, moving the “yellow line” that demarcates its area of control from 53% of the enclave since the start of the so-called ceasefire in October to well over 60%, in violation of the agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the army to take 70%.

“We can’t leave the neighborhood because there is nowhere to go,” Al-Shawa said. “If we leave the area we’re in now, we’ll end up sleeping in the streets, in filth. There is no place left. Where are we supposed to go?”

Along certain parts of Gaza, Israeli troops have placed yellow concrete blocks to delineate the new border. Their placement of the blocks further west into the Al-Tuffah neighborhood on Friday accompanied by gunfire, tanks, and quadcopter attacks caused dozens of Palestinians in the area to pack up their belongings and flee later that day.

Families crammed their scant belongings into open cardboard boxes and plastic bags. Trucks were piled up with thin mattresses, furniture, cookware and plastic bins waiting to be carried away. “The yellow line has destroyed us,” one resident yelled as he walked by.

Like nearly all of Gaza, the Al-Tuffah neighborhood is barely standing. Every building is badly damaged or completely destroyed. Residents traverse dirt roads instead of paved streets, flanked by mounds of rubble and twisted steel.

Palestinians in Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City are forcibly displaced after Israel attacked and moved yellow blocks into the area on June 15, 2026. Video by Mohamed Ahmed.

“Last night was very, very bad,” Nafiz Al-Ghaz, another resident of Al-Tuffah, told Drop Site. “It was a difficult day and an even more difficult night: tanks, quadcopters, gunfire. All night they were telling us, ‘Run, run.’ People are fleeing, taking whatever furniture, cupboards, and beds they can carry. We are on the yellow line. They placed the yellow line right at the traffic junction. …Where are we supposed to go? They might as well throw us into the sea and be done with us.”

Before the genocide began over two and a half years ago, the Gaza Strip was already one of the most densely populated places on earth. Since the “ceasefire” in October, Israel has steadily seized more land, corralling the nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza into an ever shrinking area. Every inhabitable structure is crammed full of people while hundreds of thousands are living in tents and flimsy tarp shacks pitched close together wherever there is room—on the streets and public squares, in stadiums, and on the coastline.

“No one is paying attention to us,” Mohammed Khalil told Drop Site as he gathered up his belongings along the side of a building in Al-Tuffah. “Every day we wish for death,” he said, his voice trembling as he spoke. “Every day we wish to die, to be done with this life.”

Israel has violated the “ceasefire” on a daily basis since it went into effect in October, killing over 1,000 Palestinians in routine attacks and wounding over 3,100, severely restricting the amount of aid agreed upon in the deal, and seizing more land.

“Despite the ceasefire announced eight months ago, Gaza still faces profound uncertainty and immense human suffering,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in remarks to the Security Council last week. “Violence is on the rise, with civilians killed on a daily basis. Humanitarian operations remain heavily constrained. Basic human needs—for clean water, sanitation, food, shelter, health care, and more—are going unmet. And the Israeli Government is declaring its intent to control 70% of the Strip.”

The Security Council voted in November to authorize President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” to monitor the ceasefire. In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said it delivered its response in coordination with other Palestinian factions to a proposal it received in April from Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative of the Board of Peace. Mladenov has turned a blind eye to Israel’s violations and instead called on Hamas to fully disarm despite that not being a part of the phase one deal that Hamas signed in October.

“To the world, there is a ceasefire agreement, but in practical terms on the ground, Israel has moved toward a pattern of gradual escalation that reshapes the aggression and reshapes the genocide in the Gaza Strip through multiple forms,” Ahmed Al-Tannani, a writer and political analyst in Gaza, told Drop Site. “Part of this is the daily killing around the yellow line, in addition to expanding control. Another part is linked to the continuation of assassinations and the bombing of civilians in their homes. In addition to that, it has returned to the policy of evacuating neighborhoods and then bombing them, including in areas west of the yellow line.”

Earlier this month, Israel bombed Al-Jawazat displacement camp west of Gaza City, killing six Palestinians and wounding 20 others, just one of many attacks on areas far from the “yellow line.”

“Attacks are still taking place around us. Here in the Al-Jawazat camp, there have been multiple strikes on tents,” Raed Hajjaj, who lives in a tent within the crowded displacement camp, told Drop Site. “It’s not like before, when massacres were happening continuously and the world’s attention was focused on Gaza. Now, with one or two attacks every day or two, or several times a week, the world is occupied with other issues. We all know what they are—the U.S.-Iran war, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and other developments. These things have distracted the world from us.”

Attacks From Israeli Military Bases

Mohammad Al-Zaghl pointed to the bullet holes that ripped through the fabric of his makeshift bathroom on Monday morning. He constructed the small shed out of tarp and wood close to his tent in the Halawa displacement camp in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.

The most frequent Israeli attacks target Palestinians living close to the yellow line in places where the military has built 25 kilometers of massive earth berms to physically divide Gaza. Newly constructed military bases atop the berms appear as elevated colonial forts overlooking a displaced and devastated Palestinian population.

The Halawa camp lies just a few hundred meters from an Israeli base atop one section of the berm—an imposing wall of earth lined with spotlights facing outward and an Israeli flag hanging from a flagpole inside the base alongside several towers.

“The Israelis are about 500 meters away from us,” Al-Zaghl told Drop Site. “There is not just one tower—there are one, two, three. From all three directions, we cannot escape the gunfire. Every day there is shooting. Everyone stays in their place, in their tents.”

Palestinians in Halawa displacement camp in Jabaliya recount Israeli attacks from military bases that overlook the camp on June 15, 2026. Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah.

Like thousands of others, Al-Zaghl has been living in Halawa ever since he was forcibly displaced from the Jabaliya refugee camp. In January, as he was sitting at the entrance of his tent, he heard a burst of gunfire before realizing he had been shot in the abdomen. An angry scar runs along his lower back and a smaller entry wound is visible on the left side of his stomach.

“Today it is worse than before. You hear constant gunfire, explosions, and noise,” he said.

Youssef Shaman, 15, was also shot from the Israeli military base overlooking Halawa. He said it happened in March, as he was going to collect water for his family. “While I was on my way, there was a crowd gathered around the water, and they started shooting at us from the tower,” Shaman told Drop Site. “People were hit, and I was shot in my leg. They kept firing at us from the tower. We could see the Israelis shooting at us.”

Shaman shows the bullet wound on the inside of his thigh just above the knee. An older scar runs along the top of his ankle where he was hit by shrapnel in an earlier airstrike that killed his brother. Along with other eyewitnesses, Shaman said the shooting attacks from the nearby base have steadily increased over the past few months.

“We can see them, and they can see us,” he said. “They look for someone to snipe and open fire on them. They deliberately watch and shoot us. They climb up the hill where we can see them, in their military vehicles and tanks, and then they start shooting at us. …The shooting has increased. They fire at us all day long.”

Israel has not faced any consequences for its wholesale abandonment of the ceasefire over the past eight months, with the violations becoming more acute and attacks intensifying to drive Palestinians further inward, seize more land, and continue the genocide.

“The Israeli occupation still considers the war to be ongoing, and the objectives of the war—linked primarily to achieving the strategic goal of displacing the Palestinian people—are still in place,” Al-Tannani said. “The ceasefire agreement has not brought about any change for the Israeli government.” Drop Site

Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report. Sami Vanderlip edited the video.

Features News

Fatima Cates: First British Muslim in Liverpool

CrossFireArabia
June 14, 2026

A Briton who embraced Islam in the late 1880s, is described as the first woman to convert to Islam in Liverpool. This is despite facing fierce opposition from her Christian family and social circle.

Her journey with Islam began during her involvement with the “Temperance Movement”, which advocated alcohol prohibition. There, she first heard the name of Abdullah Henry Quilliam who speak about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), describing him as “the great Arab who abstained from intoxicants.” This sparked her curiosity and prompted her to learn more about Islam.

When she expressed interest in Islam, Quilliam advised her to begin reading the Quran and presented her a translated copy. Few weeks later she embraced Islam. Shortly after that, she, with Quilliam and another convert, Ali Hamilton, founded the Liverpool Islamic Society in 1887.

Despite the personal challenges she faced, as well as the campaigns of incitement and hostility directed at the Society, Fatima steadfastly continued her missionary work.

The Society contributed to introducing Islam to a growing number of Britons, and Fatima played a prominent role in inviting women to Islam, including her sisters Clara and Annie, along with other women who became prominent Muslim women in Liverpool society.

Early Life:

Frances Elizabeth Murray was born on January 5, 1865, in Birkenhead, England, into a strict Christian working-class family. Her father, of Irish descent, worked as a porter.

Despite modest living conditions, Frances was able to receive an education, benefiting from the compulsory education law passed in 1870, making her one of the first students to benefit from this educational transformation.

From her early childhood, she displayed an independent personality and an inquisitive mind, and was known for her courage in acting according to her convictions and defending them without hesitation.

In her early twenties, Frances became involved with the Temperance Movement, a social movement that sought to reduce alcohol consumption and ultimately prohibit it altogether. She served as secretary of the movement’s Liverpool branch.

During her Temperance Movement activism, she first met Abdullah Henry Quilliam, a preacher of Islam in Britain. She listened to him deliver a sermon in which he spoke of “the great Arab who abstained from intoxicants,” in reference to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

From that moment, her curiosity about Islam began. Quilliam advised her to start by reading the Quran, giving her a translated copy and saying, “Don’t believe what I or others say about Islam. It’s better to discover it for yourself. Read the Quran.”

Within weeks, in June 1887, Frances declared her conversion to Islam, taking the name Fatima, despite fierce opposition from her family. Her mother even tried to take the Quran from her to burn it, and her family forced her into marriage, considering her a burden. She also faced severe social rejection; her home was pelted with stones, and its windows were repeatedly broken. However, this did not deter her from her decision.

The Liverpool Muslim Society was founded in July 1887 by Fatima, along with Quilliam and Ali Hamilton. Its aim was to spread the message of Islam and explain its teachings. Members met every Friday in a rented building to pray, recite the Quran, and study religious matters.

From its inception, the society faced significant challenges. Troublemakers and instigators would disrupt the meetings, even going so far as to smear Fatima’s face with horse dung on several occasions. Despite these obstacles, she remained steadfast. Within its first two years, the society attracted 11 new converts to Islam.

As the pressure mounted, they were forced to vacate their premises and moved in 1889 to a more spacious and attractive location on Brougham Terrace.

With the relaunch of the association as the Liverpool Islamic Institute, Fatima became its most prominent figure, representing it both nationally and internationally, especially as its presence grew outside Britain, particularly in British India at the time, where Fatima’s poetry and prose were published in the Allahabad Review.

Marriage and Later Years of Activism:

Fatima married Hubert Henry Cates and successfully converted him to Islam, along with her sisters Clara and Annie. Several other women also embraced Islam through her efforts, including Alice “Amina” Bertha Bowman, Hannah “Fatima” Rogda Robinson, Leah “Zuleikha” Banks, and Amy “Amina” Mukish.

Amidst this success, her marriage marked a turbulent period in her life. Although sources mention her husband’s conversion to Islam, this marriage did not end her suffering but rather added new challenges. She endured various forms of abuse at his hands, including an attempt on her life.

When she filed for divorce in December 1891, she encountered legal restrictions dating back to 1857 that denied women the right to divorce, and she was only able to obtain a legal separation for one year. However, their marriage was effectively over, and the couple lived separately until Keats’s death in 1895.

During this time, Fatima reduced her activity at the institute and spent periods away from Liverpool, traveling to the East and devoting some of her time to her hobby of landscape photography in southern England.

In 1900, Fatima contracted influenza, which developed into pneumonia and led to her death. She was given an Islamic burial at Anfield Cemetery, but her grave remained neglected for a long time until a Muslim man named Hamid Mahmood tracked it down and rebuilt it. A Muslim woman from Liverpool named Amira Scarsbrick raised the necessary funds, and the grave was rebuilt on November 4, 2022.

The marble headstone bears a verse from Fatima Keats’s poetry: “Let us always heed the warning God has given, so that we may walk safely on the path that leads to heaven.”

Aljazeera.net

Features

Jordan Footballers Delighted For World Cup Matches

CrossFireArabia
June 9, 2026

The qualification of Jordan’s national football team for the FIFA World Cup for the first time has sparked ambitions far beyond mere participation, with many Jordanians expressing confidence that the team can make a deep run in the tournament.

The World Cup will be hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, with Jordan drawn in Group J alongside Argentina, Algeria and Austria.

In interviews conducted by Anadolu in the Jordanian capital, citizens voiced optimism that the team can achieve unprecedented success on the global stage.

“When I see Jordan’s flag flying among the flags of nations around the world, it fills me with pride to be Jordanian,” said taxi driver Ahmad Al-Khalayleh. “Jordan is strong everywhere and will always remain at the forefront, and its flag will continue to fly high, God willing.”

Al-Khalayleh said the national team had faced unfair treatment in previous tournaments but was ready to meet expectations.

“I promise you that Jordan will leave a distinctive mark in its opening match against Austria, and the players will compete with one spirit and one heart,” he said.

Wadie Al-Qaisi, a young supporter, said he hoped the tournament would showcase Jordan’s growing football stature.

“We want the entire world to recognize Jordan’s value and the strength of its national team, and how capable it is of breaking records and achieving the ambitions of the Jordanian people,” he said. “We hope to reach the highest levels at the World Cup.”

Another fan, Aboud Al-Deek, said Jordanians were celebrating a historic achievement.

“We are very optimistic about the national team players reaching this advanced stage and qualifying for the World Cup finals for the first time,” he said. “The entire Jordanian people are happy about this achievement, and we look forward to seeing an outstanding and impressive performance.”

Haitham Al-Dajaah said the team’s success should encourage greater investment in youth football development.

“As fans and members of the sporting community, we hope to see greater attention given to youth and junior development programs so that we can compete in the advanced stages of future World Cups,” he said. “With ambition, determination and perseverance, we will be a formidable force at the World Cup, God willing.”

Young supporter Hamza Salah expressed the highest hopes of all.

“There is a sense of optimism that the national team will advance to the later stages, such as the quarterfinals or semifinals, and even win the trophy, God willing,” he said. “Jordan is capable of achieving that.” Anadolu

Features

Diving in a War Zone

CrossFireArabia
June 8, 2026

By Jing Zhang

When US and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran on 28 February, triggering one of the most serious geopolitical crises in years, the Strait of Hormuz – a narrow channel just 34 kilometres wide at its narrowest point – became a global flashpoint overnight.

Iran closed the waterway to foreign shipping, attacking merchant vessels and cutting off around 20 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil trade. Some 20,000 seafarers were stranded in the Persian Gulf. The UN Secretary-General called for an immediate ceasefire.

Beneath all of it, the fish kept swimming.

Back in the water

Three Chinese divers based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – diving instructor Rui Li, freediver Shanshan Du and technical diver Jie Zhang – had been locked out of the water for weeks by the coastal closure. When a ceasefire allowed limited access in mid-April, they went straight back in.

World Oceans Day, marked each year on 8 June, carries the theme this year of Reimagining the Relationship Between Humans and the Ocean. For these three, that reimagining is anything but abstract.

“We were actually a little worried before setting off,” says Du, who dived the narrowest stretch between the UAE and Oman on 18 April, just days after the UN welcomed Iran’s announcement that the strait would be open to commercial vessels during the ceasefire.

“But after more than two months, we all felt it was fantastic to be able to dive again. We encountered a large group of dolphins. There was none of the war-torn atmosphere I had imagined – only peace and beauty before my eyes.”

Zhang, who dived the area as recently as last week, describes coral diversity she has rarely encountered elsewhere – soft and hard corals varying with the topography, and sea turtles gathered in such numbers they evoked a nature reserve.

A person in a scuba diving suit and mask makes a peace sign against the ocean and blue sky. — Courtesy of Jie Zhang. Jie Zhang is back from the depths, feeling the warmth of the sun.

Troubling signs

She also noticed something more troubling. “I saw more white debris on the seabed than before,” she says, uncertain of its origin. And when she and her companions followed dolphins near the eastern side of the strait, the water around the animals was streaked with green algae, oil fumes and floating rubbish.

“I recalled that when I used to chase dolphins, the water was blue. Seeing this scene with my own eyes is still very heartbreaking.”

Li is careful to hold both realities at once. The strait is not the world’s most biodiverse marine zone, he notes, but its complex topography sustains coral reefs of unusual variety – formations “as white as silver needles” alongside colonies “as purple as pine forests” – as well as seahorses, whale sharks and species rarely seen elsewhere.

He describes witnessing a boat captain who, unable to dive and with no other means of communication, could reliably find a pod of dolphins that seemed to recognise him. “We would greet each other and then go our separate ways,” Li says. “This place is truly magical.”

A wide bay with deep blue water, bordered by arid, rocky mountains and a small coastal settlement on the right. — ©Jie Zhang Overlooking the Strait of Hormuz from the Musandam Peninsula, Oman.

Potential catastrophe

Yet he is also acutely aware of what armed conflict can do to such a place. An attack on oil storage facilities, he points out, could be catastrophic for marine life. “Many marine organisms are small and vulnerable. A single attack could be enough to wipe out some amazing species that have never been seen by humans.”

Zhang frames the underwater world’s vulnerability in blunt terms. “No one can speak for the underwater ecosystem – fish can’t speak, and neither can large animals.

“We dump all the disputes, wars and pollution on land onto the ocean, ignoring the fact that the ocean has no good self-protection capabilities and can only bear all the conflicts and damage caused by human activities.”

Diving has quietly dissolved certain certainties for all three. “Underwater, the ocean has no borders,” says Zhang. “Ocean currents and schools of fish move freely. When whale sharks cruise, they follow fixed routes through different countries – they are free. Humanity should share this blue world instead of tearing it apart with disputes.”

A person in a wetsuit and goggles floats in the ocean, adjusting their mask with both hands. — ©Jie Zhang Rui Li makes a heart gesture to his dive buddy on the water’s surface, which also stands for “OK” in diving hand signal terms.

Mother ocean

Li reaches for a different metaphor – warmer, and perhaps more honest about the limits of human agency. The relationship between people and the sea, he suggests, is something like that between a child and a parent: the ocean sustains us, nurtures us, occasionally punishes us.

“We have grown old enough to want to protect it, he says, yet what we can actually do remains small. “Our parents are still quietly waiting for us, helping us, and continuing to nurture us.”

Du, diving in a country where people of dozens of nationalities converge, has found that underwater, borders feel beside the point. Communication happens through gesture alone. “Because of this hobby, and because of the ocean, it has created a wonderful environment for us.”

The conflicts raging above the surface have not ended. Talks between Washington and Tehran remain fragile, conditions volatile. But 71 per cent of the Earth is ocean – and, as Li says to anyone who has yet to see it: come and touch the refreshing water whenever you can.