Egypt

December 24, 2024 7:23 PM

Uncertainty clouds fate of Syrians in Egypt after Assad ouster

Syrian refugees and residents in Egypt face an uncertain future as new regulations may jeopardise their right to remain in the country after Bashar al-Assad's ouster earlier this month. European countries quickly suspended Syrian asylum applications after the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham swept into Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after a 13-year civil war. Other countries are also responding to the changing political landscape. Egypt last week ratified a new law giving the go...

October 28, 2024 10:52 AM

Egypt proposes initial two-day truce in Gaza with limited hostage-prisoner exchange

Egypt has proposed an initial two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, Egypt's president said on Sunday as Israeli military strikes killed 45 Palestinians across the enclave. Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made the announcement as efforts to defuse the devastating, more than year-long war resumed in Qatar with the directors of the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence agency taking part. Speaking alongside Algerian President Abde...

August 24, 2024 1:35 PM

Biden speaks to Egypt, Qatar leaders in Gaza ceasefire push

President Joe Biden spoke by phone to the leaders of Qatar and Egypt on Friday, pushing for an elusive Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal as negotiators met in Cairo to try to overcome remaining obstacles. A White House description of the calls said Biden spoke to Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and separately with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to discuss "diplomatic efforts to bring the ceasefire and hostage release deal to a conclusion." Biden is spending a week of vac...

August 9, 2024 1:09 PM

US, Qatar and Egypt push urgent talks with Israel and Hamas on Aug 15

Leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar on Thursday called on Israel and Hamas to meet for negotiations on Aug. 15 in order to finalize a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal, said in a joint statement the talks could take place in either Doha or Cairo. "A framework agreement is now on the table with only the details of implementation left to conclude," they said. "There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any par...

July 25, 2024 7:18 PM

Israeli forces advance in southern Gaza, tanks active in Rafah

Israeli forces advanced deeper into some towns on the eastern side of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers he was actively engaged in bringing hostages home. Fighting in recent days has centred around the eastern towns of Bani Suaila, Al-Zanna, and Al-Karara, where the army said on Wednesday it had found the bodies of five Israelis who were killed in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and held in Gaza since. Hamas milit...

June 28, 2024 9:36 PM

Israeli forces push deeper into southern and northern Gaza

Israeli forces pressed their incursion deeper into two northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, and Palestinian health officials said tank shelling in Rafah killed at least 11 people. Residents and Hamas media said tanks advanced further west into the Shakoush neighbourhood of Rafah, forcing thousands of displaced people there to leave their tent camps and head northward to the nearby Khan Younis. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Since May 7, tanks have advanc...

June 19, 2024 7:19 PM

Israeli tanks push deeper into Rafah, forcing people to flee again

Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah on Wednesday, killing eight people, according to residents and Palestinian medics. Residents said the tanks moved into five neighborhoods after midnight. Heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave, they said. Some eight months into the war, there has been no sign of let up in the fighting as effo...

June 18, 2024 4:08 PM

Israeli forces deepen Rafah invasion, kill 17 in central camps

Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday killed at least 17 Palestinians in two of the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps and Israeli tanks pushed deeper into the enclave's southern city of Rafah, residents and medics said. Residents reported heavy bombardments from tanks and planes in several areas of Rafah, where more than a million people had taken refuge before May. Most of the population has fled northwards since then as Israeli forces invaded the city. "Rafah is being bombed without any interventi...

June 7, 2024 3:26 PM

Israeli forces batter central, south Gaza with renewed truce bid at impasse

With no sign of progress in mediators' arduous efforts to broker a ceasefire in the Gaza war, Israeli tanks and warplanes blasted central and southern areas of the enclave overnight, killing at least 23 Palestinians, local medics said. Qatari and Egyptian mediators backed by the United States, have tried to halt hostilities, secure the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinians jailed in Israel, and get aid flowing into shattered Gaza to ease a humanitarian crisis. But sources close to the ta...

May 22, 2024 7:14 PM

Israeli forces move deeper into Rafah in night of heavy battle

Israeli tanks advanced to the edge of a crowded district in the heart of Rafah on Wednesday during one of the most intense nights of bombardment of the southern Gaza city since Israel launched its offensive there this month. Israel's assault on Rafah on Gaza's southern edge has set hundreds of thousands of people fleeing what had been a refuge for half of the enclave's 2.3 million people. It has also cut off the main access routes for aid into Gaza, drawing international fears of mass casua...