News | Inside Morocco
Ceuta migrant disaster death toll rises to 141, Morocco's deadliest in recent history
Families demand answers over Rabat’s decision to allow tens of thousands of people to enter Spanish enclave
Relatives and friends wait by a fence topped with barbed wire for the return of people who had previously crossed into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, at Morocco's Bab Sebta border crossing on the outskirts of Fnideq, on 2 August 2026 (Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP)
Elis Gjevori
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ceut ... nt-history
5 August 2026
At least 141 people died after Moroccan https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/morocco authorities opened the border gates into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, triggering what appears to be Morocco’s deadliest migration disaster in recent history.
Migrant rights organisation Caminando Fronteras said hospitals in northern Morocco had received 63 bodies recovered from Moroccan waters by Tuesday. The Moroccan government has not officially confirmed this.
Spanish officials told Cadena SER https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/08/ ... hatgpt.com that authorities had found another 78 bodies in Spanish waters. The overall toll has therefore reached 141, far exceeding previous disasters along Morocco’s borders with Spain.
The 2022 Melilla border crush killed at least 23 people, according to the official toll, while rights groups recorded 37 deaths. Fifteen people died at Ceuta’s Tarajal beach in 2014.
Tens of thousands of people entered Ceuta, Spain’s North African territory, through the Tarajal crossing after Moroccan authorities opened the gates on Thursday.
Moroccan hospitals in Tetouan, Tangier, Fnideq and M’diq are holding the bodies. Most victims were Moroccan men aged between 20 and 30. Sub-Saharan Africans, women and children were also among the dead.
Spanish authorities have invoked the “multiple victims” protocol normally reserved for mass-casualty disasters such as train crashes and aviation accidents.
About 72,000 people crossed into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
Spain has since returned approximately 70,000 of them to Morocco, while an estimated 1,000 unaccompanied children remain stranded in Ceuta.
Anger is growing in Morocco over the authorities’ decision to open the border and the absence of accountability for the resulting deaths.
The mother of Moroccan footballer Faten Ben Omar El Azizi, who played for Moghreb Atletico Tetuan and died during the crossing, demanded answers before her daughter’s burial.
she said in a video published by Al Ayoum 24.The youth are lost… Who opened the door the first time? Why did they open it so that our children could be killed?
Meanwhile, the European Union praised Spain’s “swift response”. Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the bloc supported Spain and that migration required
a united European response.
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News | Inside Morocco
Israel revels in Spain's migrant crisis while embarrassing ally Morocco
Spanish commentators alleged Israel and the US exploited the deaths of Moroccan migrants to punish Spain for its stance on Gaza and Iran
A woman sits by a barbed-wire fence as relatives await the return of people from Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta at the Bab Sebta border crossing near Fnideq, Morocco, 2 August 2026 (Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP)
Elis Gjevori
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/isra ... ly-morocco
4 August 2026
Israeli https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel political leaders have mocked and exploited the migration crisis engulfing Morocco, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/morocco an Israeli ally, and Spain, https://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/spain whose relations with Israel have sharply deteriorated.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, wrote on X last week with barely concealed glee:
Spain did not declare a state of emergency in Ceuta. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/were ... ta-moroccoSpain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy.
Danon's real grievance appears to be Madrid's forceful and consistent condemnation of Israel's genocide https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/is ... ocide-gaza against Palestinians in Gaza, along with its refusal to back the US and Israel in their war against Iran.
Denis Cenusa, a geopolitical analyst and fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told Middle East Eye.The involvement of official Israeli channels and associated social media accounts in amplifying anti-Spanish rhetoric in the wake of the Ceuta crisis seeks to undermine Spanish strategic positions in the Middle East and North Africa region,
he added.This constitutes clear retaliation for Spain's firm stance on the Palestinian cause and the joint US-Israeli attacks against Iran,
More than 60,000 Moroccan migrants attempted to cross from Morocco into Ceuta, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_X6psw4Wp1U a Spanish enclave in North Africa.
At least 70 drowned or were crushed in the attempt, a number expected to rise.
'Why did they open the doors'
Among the dead was Moroccan footballer Faten Ben Omar El Azizi, https://gulfnews.com/sport/football/mor ... .500628961 who played for Moghreb Atletico Tetuan.
her mother said in a video published by Al Ayoum 24, shortly before Faten was buried in a Tetouan cemetery.The youth are lost… Who opened the door the first time? Why did they open it so that our children could be killed?
Beyond the grief inflicted on her family, El Azizi's death exposed an uncomfortable truth about the country she represented.
Morocco has emerged as something of a footballing powerhouse in recent years: its men's national team ranks sixth in the world, and the state has poured millions of dollars into developing the women's game.
El Azizi belonged to the generation that investment was supposed to benefit.
That investment into the country's human capital looks harder to square with what happened next.
said Zine Ghebouli, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.There is certainly an image in this incident that contradicts official narratives and the fact that the incident took place right after the Throne Day speech adds to the overall reality about the gap,
According to several reports, the Moroccan state, headed by King Mohammed VI, opened the border gates into Ceuta, known in Morocco as Sabtah, last Thursday.
The message to many Moroccans was unmistakable that the route out of the country and into Spanish territory was open.
Madrid has so far avoided publicly blaming Rabat, but a source close to Spain's foreign ministry told MEE that officials privately believe the Moroccan state deliberately orchestrated the crisis.
said Ghebouli.Migration had already been a contentious topic for the past two decades but now, the need to secure borders and the narrative propagated abou the "invasion of migrants" will push into more radical anti-migration speeches,
he added.This will challenge European unity and governments like Spain where the approach has been rather focused on integrating all migrants,
Meanwhile Spanish authorities had received intelligence about a possible surge in crossings into Ceuta and Melilla ahead of Morocco's Throne Day but failed to act, the Spanish outlet The Objective https://theobjective.com/espana/politic ... ada-ceuta/ reported on Saturday.
Military and civilian intelligence sources told the outlet that officials repeatedly disregarded warnings, including alerts issued only days before the mass movement began.
Observers had already recorded an unusual influx of buses into Fnideq, the Moroccan town closest to Ceuta, before thousands of people converged on the border and crossed into the enclave.
'Spain will pay a price'
What Morocco has actually gained from all this remains unclear, beyond politically wounding Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose relationship with Washington https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us has also deteriorated.
Sanchez may well have believed he'd secured lasting peace with Rabat https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/morocco after a diplomatic rupture that ran from December 2020 to March 2022.
In March 2022 he wrote to Mohammed VI endorsing Morocco's autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, a major shift in Spain's position on the decades-old dispute.
A year later he helped bring Morocco into the joint Spanish-Portuguese bid to host the 2030 World Cup, and let the king unveil Morocco's inclusion through his own minister, Chakib Benmoussa. The alliance appears to have been jeopardised by Morocco for reasons no one has yet explained.
Before many of the bodies had even been recovered from the sea, Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, offered his "congratulations" to Sanchez
He added:for his profound commitment to welcoming immigration and 'human diversity'.
The intervention wasn't aimed at Spain alone. By turning dead Moroccans into ammunition against Madrid, Israeli officials also humiliated a government that normalised ties with Israel on 22 December 2020 and has treated that relationship as a source of diplomatic leverage ever since.As someone who demonstrates great concern for Hamas and the residents of Gaza, I call on you to translate words into actions: open the doors of Spain and grant refuge to the residents of Gaza who seek to emigrate.
Israel and the US have both started questioning Spain's hold over Ceuta and Melilla altogether.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, accused Sanchez's government of waging a "diplomatic war" and warned https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ ... ate-price/ it would not be allowed to continue
without paying an immediate price.
he said.Israel will not remain silent in the face of those who attack us,
Many analysts now suspect this was that price.
geopolitical analyst Cenusa said.The Israeli ambassador to the UN and unofficial accounts on X have been amplifying anti-colonial rhetoric directed against Spain. Their emergence coincided with the height of the crisis, which could indicate a degree of coordination,
In Washington, a House Appropriations Committee report published on 30 April described Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish-controlled cities
and urged the secretary of state to push negotiations over their status.located in Moroccan territory
The wording appeared only in a report attached to the bill, not the bill itself, but it read as a signal to Spain, a Nato member. The House passed the legislation on 15 July; the Senate has not, and the president has not signed it.
No hard evidence has emerged that Israel, the US and Morocco coordinated the crisis. However, with Israeli leaders openly gloating on social media, at least one member of Sanchez’s government has entertained the possibility.
Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente shared a post stating:
Some in Washington, Tel Aviv, and Rabat... wanted images of our security forces and armed forces machine-gunning children on the beach.