PORTICELLO, Italy (AP) — A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily in 2024, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, has been recovered from the sea.
The 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian was lifted by salvage crews near the port of Porticello, where it sank on Aug. 19 last year during a violent storm.
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The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is pulled out of the sea and dewatered off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
Memebers of the media on the Italian Coast Guard ship 'Dattilo' watch the hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, being pulled out of the sea and dewatered off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The salvage operations of the hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, are seen through the bridge of the Italian Coast Guard ship 'Diciotti' off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
A floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it. The vessel will then be made available for investigators to help determine the cause of the sinking.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is pulled out of the sea and dewatered off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
Memebers of the media on the Italian Coast Guard ship 'Dattilo' watch the hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, being pulled out of the sea and dewatered off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The salvage operations of the hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, are seen through the bridge of the Italian Coast Guard ship 'Diciotti' off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The hull of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank near Palermo, Sicily, on August 19, 2024, is lifted by cranes during salvage operations off the village of Porticello Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.
The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.
Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.
“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.
Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.
Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.
She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.
The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.
The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.
Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.
“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”
Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.
The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.
That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.
For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.
Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.
"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”
An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
