Coronavirus cases falling in Egypt

A nurse holds a vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Cairo International Convention & Exhibition Center, Egypt, June 5, 2021. (Reuters)
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Updated 09 June 2021
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Coronavirus cases falling in Egypt

  • Health Minister Hala Zayed said that the virus helped the health sector make a 10-year leap in terms of science, perseverance and finding solutions
  • Zayed urged people to follow precautionary measures, get vaccinated, and choose open places when going out in order to reduce infection rates

CAIRO: Coronavirus cases have begun to fall in Egypt, the country’s health minister confirmed on Wednesday.

Hala Zayed said that bed occupancy rates in hospital quarantine wards are also declining.

She said that along with the World Health Organization, “we are currently documenting the public health initiatives undertaken by Egypt.”

Egypt’s public health programs, such as the 100 Million Health Initiative, a hepatitis C campaign, a women’s campaign, and the waiting list program under which 800 surgeries were performed, were major factors behind the successful fight against COVID-19.

Zayed said that the virus helped the health sector make a 10-year leap in terms of science, perseverance and finding solutions.

She urged people to follow precautionary measures, get vaccinated, and choose open places when going out in order to reduce infection rates.

Zayed said that the number of virus cases is unlikely to increase during July and August, based on previous data.

Vaccinating a large number of citizens will protect the most vulnerable groups in the event of a global fourth wave of infections, she said.


Israeli strikes ‘shredding people to pieces’ in Gaza: British surgeon

Palestinian mourn relatives who were killed in Israeli army airstrike on the Gaza Strip, at the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital.
Updated 6 sec ago
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Israeli strikes ‘shredding people to pieces’ in Gaza: British surgeon

  • Tom Potokar: ‘It is difficult to imagine how human beings can treat other human beings in this way’
  • ‘This will be a stain on humanity when people look back in years to come’

LONDON: Israeli strikes on Gaza are “shredding people to pieces,” a British surgeon working in hospitals there has told the Daily Telegraph.

Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon working in southern Gaza, said he was at the European Hospital when it was attacked by Israel.

Its new offensive has been met by international condemnation, with Gaza’s Health Ministry saying hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent days.

Potokar, who is now stationed at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, said: “You have to consider that the Gaza Strip is, geographically, a very small area and yet there are nearly two million people living here.

“So, when you drop ordnance — with the amounts being used and the type of weapons being used in such a small, densely populated area — you are literally shredding people to pieces.”

Potokar was forced to move hospital three times in the past week to avoid Israeli bombing. Describing the attack on the European Hospital, he said: “It is difficult to imagine how human beings can treat other human beings in this way. To see children particularly with horrific injuries and amputations, to see pregnant women requiring major surgery — it’s absolute brutality.”

Israeli attacks on hospitals have drawn widespread condemnation from humanitarian organizations.

The UN Human Rights Office and Human Rights Watch said Israeli bombardment is pushing Gaza’s already-damaged healthcare system to the brink of collapse.

Potokar was also near an airstrike that hit Al-Amal Hospital. “It was around 6 a.m. and a massive strike happened about 400 meters from the hospital, with heavy machine gun fire and helicopters,” he said.

“Thankfully, there were no casualties in the hospital, but a huge piece of shrapnel landed in front of the emergency room.”

He added: “What is the West doing, what is the rest of the world doing? Churning out press statement after press statement but nothing is changing.

“This will be a stain on humanity when people look back in years to come, when we say ‘how did we allow this to happen?’ We’ve been here before, and no lessons are being learned.”

Potokar said: “The killing goes on, the slaughter goes on and these are people like you and me.”


Lebanon says 9 wounded in Israeli strike

Updated 15 min 17 sec ago
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Lebanon says 9 wounded in Israeli strike

  • Nine people were wounded in the attack
  • Israel has continued to launch strikes on its northern neighbor despite the November truce

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on Tuesday wounded nine people in the country’s south, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
The latest reported strike, which the Israeli military did not immediately comment on, came a day after Israel said it had killed a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in the border area of Hula.
The Lebanese health ministry on Tuesday said that an “Israeli enemy drone” hit a motorcycle in the coastal Tyre district.
Nine people were wounded in the attack including three in “critical condition,” the ministry said, adding that two children were among the victims.
Israel has continued to launch strikes on its northern neighbor despite the November truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, only UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army should be deployed in southern Lebanon, though Israel has retained its forces in five areas it has declared strategic.
Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw all its troops.


UN has permission for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

Updated 20 May 2025
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UN has permission for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it has received permission to send “around 100” trucks of aid into the war-shattered Gaza Strip, as humanitarian assistance trickled back in to the territory.
“We have requested and received approval of more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva, adding that “we expect, of course, with that approval, many of them, hopefully all of them, to cross today to a point where they can be picked up and get further into the Gaza Strip for distribution.”


Army, paramilitaries clash near Sudan capital

Updated 20 May 2025
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Army, paramilitaries clash near Sudan capital

  • The army said its operation which began on Monday was aimed at driving the paramilitaries from their last positions in Khartoum state

KHARTOUM: Clashes erupted on Tuesday between the Sudanese regular army and rival paramilitaries in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, with the army calling the fighting part of a "large-scale" offensive.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said explosions rang out in the area, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had retreated after losing control of the Sudanese capital in March.

The army said its operation which began on Monday was aimed at driving the paramilitaries from their last positions in Khartoum state.

"We are pressing a large-scale operation and we are close to clearing the whole of Khartoum state from dirty thugs," military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement.

The war since April 2023 has pitted the army headed by Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF under his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The fighting comes as both the army and the RSF are attempting to establish their own governments.

On Monday, army chief Burhan has tapped a former United Nations official, Kamil Idris, as a new prime minister -- a move seen by analysts as an attempt to gain international recognition and present a functioning civilian-led government amid the ongoing war.

The African Union on Tuesday welcomed the appointment, calling it "a step toward inclusive governance" and expressing hope that the move will "restore constitutional order and democratic governance in Sudan".

The RSF announced in April it would form a rival administration, a few weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.

In recent weeks, the RSF has staged multiple drone attacks on areas around the country, including Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, the seat of the army-aligned government since the war began.

Omdurman, which is situated just across the River Nile from Khartoum, has been a focal point of fighting in recent days.

This week, a days-long electricity blackout hit the whole Khartoum state, following drone strikes blamed on the RSF on three power stations in Omdurman.

Medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that the power outages had disrupted health services at the city's major hospitals.

"The magnitude of these drone attacks represents a major escalation in the conflict, with alarming implications for civilian protection," the UN's human rights expert on Sudan, Radhouane Nouicer, said in a statement on Monday.

"The recurrent attacks on critical infrastructure place civilian lives at risk, worsen the humanitarian crisis, and undermine basic human rights."

The army has meanwhile launched attacks in areas controlled by the RSF in the country's south, trying to claim territory and cut off rival supply lines.

The Emergency Lawyers, a monitoring group which has documented atrocities on both sides, on Sunday accused the army of killing 18 civilians, including four children, in an attack on Al-Hamadi village in South Kordofan state last week.

The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and sparked what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has carved up Sudan, with the army controlling the north, east, and centre, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.


EU agrees to lift all economic sanctions on Syria: diplomats

Updated 16 min 35 sec ago
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EU agrees to lift all economic sanctions on Syria: diplomats

BRUSSELS: EU countries on Tuesday gave a green light to lifting all economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the war-torn country recover after the ouster of Bashar Assad, diplomats said.
Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states struck a preliminary agreement for the move, which should be formally unveiled by foreign ministers meeting in Brussels later in the day, diplomats said.
The decision from the European Union comes after US President Donald Trump announced last week that Washington was lifting its sanctions against Syria.
The country’s new rulers have been clamouring for relief from the crushing international punishment imposed after Assad’s crackdown on opponents spiralled into civil war.
EU diplomats said the agreement should see sanctions cutting Syrian banks off from the global system and freezing central bank assets lifted.
But diplomats said the bloc was intending to impose new individual sanctions on those responsible for stirring ethnic tensions, following deadly attacks targeting the Alawite minority.
Other measures targeting the Assad regime and prohibiting the sale of weapons or equipment that could be used to repress civilians were set to remain in place.
The latest move from the EU comes after it took a first step in February of suspending some sanctions on key Syrian economic sectors.
Officials said those measures could be reimposed if Syria’s new leaders break promises to respect the rights of minorities and move toward democracy.