At least eleven people have died and dozens more are missing after a boat carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya community sank near the Thailand-Malaysia maritime border, Malaysian and Thai authorities confirmed on Monday.

Officials said the wooden vessel, carrying an estimated 70 passengers, capsized off the coast of Langkawi late last week. So far, 13 survivors — mostly Rohingya — have been rescued, while the search continues for the remaining passengers.

Thai authorities reported four bodies recovered, including two children, adding to the seven found by Malaysia’s maritime agency. Another boat carrying around 230 people remains unaccounted for, prompting joint air and sea operations between Malaysia and Thailand.

“We have strong coordination with the Thai maritime agency and continue to exchange information closely,” said Romli Mustafa, director of Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency in Kedah and Perlis. “Air and sea assets are being deployed, and the search operation could continue for up to seven days.”

Preliminary reports indicate that the group departed from Myanmar’s western coast, near the border with Bangladesh, around two weeks ago. Some passengers were later transferred onto smaller boats, including the one that sank, in an apparent attempt to evade maritime patrols.

A desperate exodus

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group long persecuted in Myanmar, continue to flee violence, discrimination, and poverty in the country’s Rakhine State. More than 1.3 million now live as refugees in Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps, while others undertake dangerous sea crossings in search of safety in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Between January and early November 2025, over 5,100 Rohingya are believed to have attempted sea journeys from Myanmar and Bangladesh, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Nearly 600 people have died or gone missing during that period.

Thailand’s maritime command confirmed that two of the recovered victims were carrying refugee cards identifying them as Rohingya.

Türkiye has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several senior Israeli officials on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with Israel’s war in Gaza.

According to a statement released on Friday by the Istanbul prosecutor’s office, arrest warrants have been issued for 37 Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir. The full list of suspects was not made public.

The statement accuses Israeli leaders of carrying out “systematic acts of genocide and crimes against humanity” since the war began in October 2023. It cites several incidents, including the October 17, 2023 bombing of Gaza’s al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which killed about 500 people, and the February 29, 2024 destruction of medical equipment by Israeli soldiers. It also references Israel’s blockade of Gaza and the denial of humanitarian access.

The prosecutor’s office further highlighted the bombing of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, built by Türkiye in the Gaza Strip, which was struck by Israeli forces in March.

Israel condemned the move as a “publicity stunt.”

“Israel firmly rejects, with contempt, the latest PR stunt by the tyrant [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian group Hamas welcomed Türkiye’s announcement, calling it a “commendable step that reflects the sincere commitment of the Turkish people and their leadership to justice, humanity, and solidarity with our oppressed Palestinian nation.”

The development comes nearly a year after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes. Türkiye also joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.

According to Gaza’s health authorities, Israel’s war on the enclave has so far killed at least 68,875 Palestinians and wounded more than 170,000 since October 2023.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Kazakhstan will join the Abraham Accords to have normalized relations between Israel and Muslim-majority nations.

The announcement came after Trump said he had held a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Reuters reported.

The Kazakh government said in a statement that the matter was in the final stage of negotiations.

“Our anticipated accession to the Abraham Accords represents a natural and logical continuation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy course — grounded in dialogue, mutual respect, and regional stability,” it added.

Kazakhstan already has full diplomatic relations and economic ties with Israel, meaning the move would be largely symbolic, something Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back against on Thursday.

“It’s an enhanced relationship beyond just diplomatic relations,” he said.

“It is… with all the other countries that are part of the accord. You’re now creating a partnership that brings special and unique economic development on all sorts of issues that they can work on together.”

Trump met with Tokayev alongside four other Central Asian leaders from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan at the White House on Thursday as the U.S. seeks to gain influence in a region long dominated by Russia and increasingly courted by China.

“Some of the countries represented here are going to be joining the Abraham Accords… and those announcements will be made over the next little while,” Trump said.

WITKOFF RETURNING FOR ANNOUNCEMENT

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier at a business forum in Florida that he would be returning to Washington for the announcement, without naming the country.

Axios first reported that the country would be Kazakhstan.

A second source familiar with the matter said the United States hopes that Kazakhstan’s entry will help reinvigorate the Abraham Accords, the expansion of which has been on hold during the Gaza war.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to expand the accords that he brokered during his first term in the White House.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established ties with Israel in 2020 under the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords. Morocco established ties with Israel later the same year.

Trump has been upbeat about the prospects that regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia will finally join the accords since a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza last month, but Riyadh has shown no willingness to move ahead without at least a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to visit the White House on November 18.

Other Central Asian countries such as Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, both of which have close ties with Israel, have also been seen as potentially joining the Abraham Accords, which is considered a signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s first term.