15 Gazans drown off the coast of Egypt

At least 15 Gazans drowned Sunday after their boat capsized off the coast of northern Egypt, Egyptian military officials said, adding that 72 others had been rescued.

Naval forces responded to an emergency call for help from a boat that had overturned after hitting a rock, the officials told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.

The passengers had apparently fled from Gaza to Egypt and, along with Egyptian and Syrian migrants, were trying to reach Italy by boat.

Sunday’s wreck was just the latest tragedy involving migrants, often trying to escape war-torn countries such as Syria or Eritrea, trying to reach Europe aboard smuggling boats.

In May, a boat crowded with migrants sank in the Mediterranean just beyond Libya’s territorial waters, leaving at least 14 people dead. And last fall, at least 232 people perished in the fiery capsizing of a smuggler’s trawler near Lampedusa. Only 155 people survived that capsizing.