A “new normal” of heightened risk and uncertain regulation is impacting the Strait of Hormuz, shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd warned Sunday, as military strikes escalated and conflicting routing directives plunged the waterway into operational chaos.

The remarks from the German shipping giant also came as Tehran “simultaneously” began moving millions of barrels of crude oil from Kharg Island for the first time in days, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

“At Kharg, the T-Jetty and Western Terminal loaded simultaneously for the first time in days; the East Waiting Area holds 28 tankers, 27 dark, signaling the Iranian crude export cycle restarting,” Windward AI said in a post on X.

The outbound cargo consists of an estimated 4.12 million barrels of wet cargo, including crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons. Of that total, about 3.91 million barrels are crude oil, analytics firm Vortexa said.

GULF SHIPPING OPERATIONS GRIND TO HALT NEAR IRAN, US QUIETLY PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE STRIKE: ‘HEIGHTENED RISK’

“We have to acknowledge that this is for some months the new normal in the Persian Gulf region,” Hapag-Lloyd AG spokesperson Hanja Maria Richter told Fox News Digital.

“The situation has been fluid for us since the beginning of the conflict,” she said before adding that constant vigilance has become essential to operating in the region.

“We have been making and still make regular risk and situation assessments with our security partners, all relevant authorities and our people on shore and, of course, on the vessels,” Richter said.

“It is a region in conflict, so we consider this with every single ship we move in the region and assess the risks for every vessel and its crew individually.”

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Richter’s remarks came as U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) launched airstrikes against Iranian targets, including Qeshm Island on June 26 after a vessel was struck in the strait.

This prompted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to retaliate by targeting U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain. 

Adding to the strike risk is a tug-of-war over control of the transit lanes.

Lloyd’s List described the fracturing of the waterway as a “confused, two-tier system now operating in the strait, which remains split between the Iran-controlled northern route and a U.S.-protected southern ‘highway,’ with the pre-war routes rendered unusable because of the risk of mines, separating them.”

Iran is responsible for managing and fully reopening maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz under recent understandings, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday, according to Iran International.

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Iranian state television said that passage through the Strait of Hormuz demands coordination with the IRGC.

Hapag-Lloyd pushed back against any future attempts to weaponize or monetize passage through the critical global chokepoint.

“It would be fundamentally wrong to impose fees for passage through international waters,” Richter said.

“Fees for infrastructure such as the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal are a different matter, as they reflect major infrastructure investments. That is not the case with the Strait of Hormuz.”

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While thousands of crew members remain caught by conflicting naval directives, Hapag-Lloyd said it had successfully navigated the initial bottleneck.

“Good news is that we were able to have all Hapag-Lloyd vessels that were affected by the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz and had been waiting in the Persian Gulf depart safely from the Gulf,” Richter noted before adding that “the safety of our crews is our highest priority.”

Search-and-rescue crews in Venezuela pulled 33 people alive from collapsed buildings over the weekend after twin earthquakes devastated the country’s northern coast, but officials and aid workers warned Sunday that time was rapidly running out for nearly 50,000 still feared missing.

The death toll stood at 1,430 as of late Saturday, according to The Associated Press. More than 3,000 have been injured and roughly the same number are living in shelters, according to Venezuelan authorities.

The worst devastation is concentrated in coastal La Guaira state, where entire apartment blocks, hotels and public housing buildings pancaked after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck in quick succession Wednesday. Hundreds of aftershocks have continued to rattle damaged neighborhoods, complicating rescue work and keeping survivors outside in the heat.

Among the 33 rescued were an infant removed alive from rubble by U.S. rescuers, an 11-year-old boy found by a Colombian team after a scanner detected him about 10 feet below the surface, and another 11-year-old rescued by Mexican crews in Caraballeda.

AMERICAN RESCUE TEAMS PULL INFANT ALIVE FROM RUBBLE IN VENEZUELA DAYS AFTER DEVASTATING TWIN EARTHQUAKES

“In these hours each life is hope for Venezuela,” Acting President Delcy Rodríguez wrote on X after one of the rescues.

Swiss rescue-team leader Sebastian Eugster told Reuters that the odds of finding survivors drop sharply after roughly 72 hours under rubble. That mark passed Saturday evening.

“There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” Eugster said.

The missing toll remains highly uncertain. The government has spoken of hundreds missing or trapped, while some estimated just under 50,000 people as missing Sunday, down from 55,000 a day earlier. The AP reported that families had listed 68,900 people missing Saturday, underscoring the chaos in accounting for the dead, the displaced and those cut off by communications failures.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PLEDGES $150M IN AID, DEPLOYS NAVY WARSHIPS AFTER DEADLY VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES

With the desperation of the survival window closing as the days and hours wear on, Starlink has provided communication services for the humanitarian crisis.

“Starlink Mobile is providing free connectivity to @MovistarVe customers in the La Guaira region, and we are working to provide free service for @DigitelAyuda and @movilnet_ve customers as quickly as possible,” Starlink posted Sunday to X.

“Families, communities and businesses with compatible LTE smartphones can now stay connected through SMS even if terrestrial networks are not available and customer phones will automatically connect to Starlink Mobile. Coverage will work best with a clear view of the sky.”

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Pope Leo on Sunday expressed solidarity with survivors and victims’ families holding out hope.

“I wish to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes that caused numerous victims and injuries,” the pontiff said in Spanish before worshippers gathered for Sunday’s Angelus prayer in Rome.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo – The latest Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is unfolding against the backdrop of one of the world’s most complex humanitarian crises.

Conflict involving armed groups and intercommunal violence has displaced large numbers of people, while insecurity has made it difficult for health workers to reach many communities, particularly camps for internally displaced people (IDPs).

Officials say the lack of access is hampering case detection, contact tracing and treatment, while communities that have long been deprived of basic services remain sceptical of an Ebola-focused response.

Al Jazeera speaks to Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the humanitarian challenges hampering the response, the funding gap and what it will take to bring the outbreak under control.

Al Jazeera: What are the main priorities?

Jean Kaseya: We are in a region where around a million people are living in camps for internally displaced people. These people cannot access even the most basic services and reaching those camps is a major challenge.

Some of the people coming from the camps to seek treatment are telling us there are many more cases there, but we cannot access them. We are talking about close to two million people.

Al Jazeera: You cannot go there because of security reasons?

Jean Kaseya: We cannot go there because of security concerns, which are linked not only to rebel groups but also to conflict between the Hema and Lendu communities. The people living in these camps have not received humanitarian support for a very long time.

When health workers go there to raise awareness about Ebola, people ask: “Why are you coming now? Is it because of your disease?”

They tell us they do not have enough water, food or medicines for other diseases.

They ask our volunteers: “Why are you only coming here because of Ebola?” It is a difficult question to answer.

Al Jazeera: You recently met Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and African Union Chairperson and Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye. What came out of those meetings?

Jean Kaseya: We met the two heads of state together with the Ebola task force and the humanitarian affairs ministry. We concluded that we need around $1.4bn over the next six months to deal with this humanitarian crisis if we are serious about stopping the outbreak.

At our meeting on June 16, we received pledges of $910m, but that was for the health response only. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has provided $50m out of the $200m requested for the health response plan.

Now, because of the scale of the humanitarian crisis, those needs are being reviewed. We are talking about $1.4bn on top of the $200m required for the health response.

Al Jazeera: $1.4bn is a great deal of money at a time of donor fatigue. Why is that level of funding necessary?

Jean Kaseya: I want to make this very clear. Without addressing the humanitarian crisis, we will not stop the outbreak. That is what makes this outbreak more complex and more difficult than others we have seen in the past.

You cannot contain an Ebola outbreak without addressing these humanitarian challenges.

Al Jazeera: How will you secure that funding?

Jean Kaseya: It is a matter of choice. No one is protected. If our partners are serious, they will provide the funding needed to stop this outbreak where it is now.

If they do not act and tomorrow the outbreak spirals out of control, they could also be affected. Then they will realise that responding to the outbreak in their own countries will cost five to 10 times more than what we are requesting today to stop it at its source.

Al Jazeera: Another major challenge is contact tracing. Why?

Jean Kaseya: One of our key indicators is that we are seeing cases coming from camps for displaced people. There are three or four major camps and we are struggling to carry out contact tracing there.

Most of those affected are between the ages of 15 and 45. They are young and economically active. Anyone exposed to the virus needs to be isolated and monitored for 21 days, which means they cannot go to work or run their businesses.

We need to compensate them, provide them with food and give them somewhere to stay. Some of them do not even have a home.

Al Jazeera: What is your biggest concern?

Jean Kaseya: The case fatality rate is now approaching 25 percent and we do not know where the situation is heading.

We know that Ebola case fatality rates are usually around 20 percent, but the symptoms we are seeing are changing. Some are different from what we have seen in previous outbreaks. There are still many unknowns.

We must provide the support needed to stop the virus where it is. Closing borders is not the solution.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.