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Egypt’s FM: Israel has not allowed Rafah crossing to open from Gaza

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Updated 16 October 2023
Agencies
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Egypt’s FM: Israel has not allowed Rafah crossing to open from Gaza

  • UN aid chief Martin Griffiths traveling to the Middle East to support negotiations on getting aid into the blockaded Gaza Strip
Updated 16 October 2023
Agencies

CAIRO/WASHINGTON/GAZA/ DUBAI: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Monday that the Israeli government had yet to take a stance that allowed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to open.

Egypt has aimed since the conflict broke out to keep the Rafah crossing operational, Shoukry said, calling the situation faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza “dangerous.”

The Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza was earlier expected to reopen amid diplomatic efforts to get aid into the enclave that has been under intense Israeli bombing since the rampage by the militant group Hamas killed 1,300 people.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday he would be traveling to the Middle East to support negotiations on getting aid into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Griffiths said his office was in “deep discussions” with Israel, Egypt and others.

“I shall be going myself tomorrow to the region to try to help in the negotiations, to try to bear witness and to express solidarity with the extraordinary courage of the many thousands of aid workers who have stayed the course and who are still there helping the people in Gaza and in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.

“Rafah will be reopened. We’re putting in place with the United Nations, with Egypt, with Israel, with others, a mechanism by which to get the assistance in and to get it to people who need it,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday.

Blinken did not give a specific time for the crossing to reopen. Veteran US diplomat David Satterfield, appointed on Sunday as a special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, will arrive in Egypt on Monday to work out the details, Blinken said.




Volunteers wait next to a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians, as they wait for an agreement on the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza on Oct. 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Monday denied reports of any temporary Gaza cease-fire to allow foreign nationals to flee the enclave to neighboring Egypt.

However, the army pledged to refrain from striking routes within Gaza designated for evacuating people from the enclave’s north to the south during a limited time window, from 8 a.m. to noon.

Media reports had said Israel, Egypt and the US had agreed the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be opened for several hours Monday in a one-off move to allow foreign nationals to flee and aid goods to enter.

But Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “there is currently no cease-fire and humanitarian aid in Gaza in return for removing foreigners.”




A child sleeps as Palestinians with dual citizenship gather outside Rafah border crossing with Egypt. (Reuters)

Aid convoys have waited on the Egyptian side but, according to witnesses, had not left the town of El-Arish, about 40 kilometers east of Rafah on Monday.

The Israeli military said earlier Monday it would refrain from striking two roads in the Gaza Strip marked for residents to move south and out of the way of a possible ground offensive.

“The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will refrain from targeting the designated axis from 8:00 am (0500 GMT) until 12:00 (0900 GMT),” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, formerly Twitter.

“For your safety take advantage of this short period of time to move south from the north of the strip and Gaza City.”

Military spokesman Jonathan Conricus pledged in a separate statement that the two designated roads “would be safe to use” for that duration.

US President Joe Biden has urged Israel to follow the laws of war in its response to the Hamas attacks, and on Sunday said in a post on social media that “the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas’ appalling attacks and are suffering as a result of them.”




US citizens wait at the port of Haifa to be evacuated to Cyprus on Oct. 16, 2023. (AFP)

In a CBS 60 Minutes interview aired on Sunday, Biden also said Israel needed to eliminate Hamas, but warned that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza.

NBC News, citing a Palestinian official, reported the Rafah border crossing would open at 9 a.m. on Monday. Citing a security source, ABC News reported the crossing would open for a few hours on Monday, without providing details.

Israel has urged exhausted Gazans to evacuate south, which hundreds of thousands have already done in the besieged enclave that is home to more than 2 million people. Hamas, which runs Gaza, has told people to ignore Israel’s message.

“Hamas has always said that there is no surrender, there is only freedom and justice,” the militant group said in a statement on Sunday.

Palestinians in Gaza said Israel’s bombing campaign overnight was the heaviest since it launched its retaliatory attacks last week. Bombardment was especially heavy in Gaza City, with airstrikes hitting the areas around two of the city’s main hospitals, they said.

Reserves of fuel at all hospitals across the Gaza Strip are expected to last only around 24 more hours, putting thousands of patients at risk, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Monday.

Blinken said leaders in Arab states he visited across the region in recent days were determined to stop the war from spreading. Blinken is also seeking to secure the release of 155 hostages, including Americans, Israel says were taken by Hamas back into Gaza.

Iran, which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah, warned Israel of escalation if it kept attacking Palestinians, adding that it could not simply say an observer.

An Israeli blockade has prevented fuel, food and water from entering Gaza, although Netanyahu had agreed with Biden to resume the water supply to parts of southern Gaza, a minister said on Sunday.

Topics: War on Gaza Gaza Israel Rafah crossing Egypt Antony Blinken US

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Trump administration orders Gaza-linked social media vetting for visa applicants

Updated 19 sec ago
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Trump administration orders Gaza-linked social media vetting for visa applicants

  • New order sent to all US diplomatic missions
  • Social media vetting includes NGO workers
Updated 19 sec ago
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Thursday ordered a social media vetting for all US visa applicants who have been to the Gaza Strip on or after January 1, 2007, an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters showed, in the latest push to tighten screening of foreign travelers.
The order to conduct a social media vetting for all immigrant and non-immigrant visas should include non-governmental organization workers as well as individuals who have been in the Palestinian enclave for any length of time in an official or diplomatic capacity, the cable said.
“If the review of social media results uncovers potential derogatory information relating to security issues, then a SAO must be submitted,” the cable said, referring to a security advisory opinion, which is an interagency investigation to determine if a visa applicant poses a national security risk to the United States.
The cable was sent to all US diplomatic and consular posts.
The move comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked hundreds of visas across the country, including the status of some lawful permanent residents under a 1952 law allowing the deportation of any immigrant whose presence in the country the secretary of state deems harmful to US foreign policy.
The cable dated April 17 was signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in late March that he may have revoked more than 300 visas already.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump officials have said student visa holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to US foreign policy interests.
Trump’s critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
The US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech for everyone in the US, regardless of immigration status. But there have been high-profile instances of the administration revoking visas of students who advocated against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Among the most widely publicized of such arrests was one captured on video last month of masked agents taking a Tufts University student from Turkiye, Rumeysa Ozturk, into custody.
When asked about Ozturk at a news conference last month, Rubio said: “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas” and he warned there would be more individuals whose visas could be revoked.

Houthis say 13 killed in US air strike on Yemen oil port

Updated 33 min 33 sec ago
AFP
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Houthis say 13 killed in US air strike on Yemen oil port

Updated 33 min 33 sec ago
AFP

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis said US air strikes Thursday on the oil port of Ras Issa left at least 13 dead and 30 wounded.

The US military said it carried out the strikes to cut off the Houthis’ fuel supply and a source of funds.

“Thirteen workers and employees at the Ras Issa port were killed and 30 others injured in the American aggression on the port,” Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said in a social media post.

Topics: Yemen Houthis US

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Red Crescent clearing bodies ‘everywhere’ in Khartoum

Updated 18 April 2025
AFP
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Red Crescent clearing bodies ‘everywhere’ in Khartoum

Updated 18 April 2025
AFP

GENEVA: Since Sudan’s army retook Khartoum last month, Red Crescent volunteers have been working to collect and clear the bodies littering the streets of the war-ravaged capital.
Aida El Sayed, head of the Sudan Red Crescent, told AFP the organization’s volunteers were finding bodies “in the street, inside the buildings, everywhere.”
She said it remained unclear how many bodies are still lying out in the open in Khartoum.
But during just one day, she said Red Crescent volunteers had found “250 in one street.”
Since April 2023, the conflict has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The war, which entered its third year on Tuesday, has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and created what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
In Khartoum alone, more than 61,000 people have died of various causes during the first 14 months of war, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine — a 50 percent increase in the pre-war death rate.
Of those deaths, 26,000 were attributed directly to violence, the report found last year.
Until the army reseized control of the capital “nobody could enter Khartoum,” Sayed said.
Consequently, some of the bodies being found have been there “since the beginning of the war,” she said.
“Sometimes we are collecting bones.”
The Sudan Red Crescent counts some 12,000 volunteers in the country, providing assistance to the millions of displaced people, handing out food and water, and offering psychological support.
The Sudan Red Crescent is meanwhile struggling to keep up with the towering needs in the country amid a dire lack of funding.
“Sudan is a neglected, forgotten war,” said Sayed.
Only highly-trained teams handle the organization’s “dead body management” program, decked out in special protective gear as they gather up remains in plastic bags before transporting them to a designated safe area, Sayed said.
The main challenge is identifying the bodies.
Those found with ID cards are carefully registered and buried in a designated area, easy to find and visit.
The others are registered with all the known details and taken to another area, where family members searching for missing relatives can come and make inquiries.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that at least 8,000 people were reported missing across Sudan last year alone, warning this was just “the tip of the iceberg.”
The Red Crescent volunteers are helping in the painstaking work to track down the missing, Sayed said, adding that this was “a very big problem” in Sudan.
“You get the call in the middle of the night: I cannot find my daughter, my husband, my brother... We always hear from people asking about their family members or neighbors.”
In addition to tracking missing people and clearing bodies from Kartoum’s streets, the volunteers are taking part in a “cleaning campaign,” in a bid to make it safe for the many displaced people now eager to return home.
The United Nations said this week that it expected more than two million people to return to the capital within the next six months.
Asked if it was safe for them to return, Sayed acknowledged that “there are no guarantees of that,” but stressed that people were “really tired” and just wanted to see their homes.
She herself is from Khartoum. So far, she has only seen a picture of the house she grew up in and started her own family in.
“It has completely collapsed, and bombed in some areas.”
“It is hard.”
Even as the Sudan Red Crescent strives to support communities across the war-ravaged country, its workers are facing the same dangers and the communities they serve.
The organization has lost 28 staff members and volunteers in the war, Sayed said.
“In Sudan, everyone is a target.”

Topics: Sudan Unrest

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WFP halts food shipments to Houthi-held parts of Yemen after militia seize warehouse

Updated 17 April 2025
AP
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WFP halts food shipments to Houthi-held parts of Yemen after militia seize warehouse

  • WFP said 62 percent of households it surveyed couldn’t get enough food
  • The seizure was the latest friction between the Houthis and the United Nations
Updated 17 April 2025
AP

CAIRO: The World Food Program has halted food shipments to Houthi-held areas of Yemen and suspended food distribution there after the militants looted one of its warehouses in the north, its deputy director said Thursday.
The suspension is a further blow in the war-torn country, where hunger has been growing. In February, the WFP said 62 percent of households it surveyed couldn’t get enough food, a figure that has been rising for the past nine months. It estimates that some 17 million people – early half Yemen’s population — are food insecure.
Carl Skau, WFP’s deputy executive director and chief operating officer, told The Associated Press that Houthis seized the warehouse in the northern region of Saada in mid-March and took around $1.6 million in supplies.
The seizure was the latest friction between the Houthis and the United Nations. The militants in recent months have detained dozens of UN staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the once-open US Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital.
UN agencies, including the WFP, had already halted operations in Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold, in February after seven WFP staffers and another UN worker were detained, and one of the WFP members died in prison. It continued low-level operations in other parts of Yemen under the Houthis’ control.
After the seizure of the warehouse, the WFP halted shipments of new supplies to Houthi-held areas, Skau said.
“The operating environment needs to be conducive for us to continue,” he said. “We cannot accept that our colleagues are being detained, and much less so that our colleagues are dying in detention. And we cannot accept our assets are being looted.”
“It’s something we don’t take lightly because the needs are massive,” he said. “The humanitarian implications of this are deep and extensive … It’s clear the food security situation is deteriorating.”
Yemen has been torn by civil war for more than a decade. Houthi militants hold the capital Sanaa and much of the north and center of the country, where the majority of its population of nearly 40 million live. The internationally recognized government controls the south and west.
Throughout the war, Yemen has been threatened by hunger, nearly falling into full-fledged famine. The impoverished nation imports most of its food.
Skau said the WFP is seeking Houthi permission to distribute food that remains in other warehouses in the north. He said that if UN workers are released, it could resume programs distributing food to some 3 million people in Houthi-held areas.
The WFP is also providing food assistance to some 1.6 million people in southern Yemen, areas controlled by the government and its allies.
But the organization has warned its programs there could be hurt after US President Donald Trump’s administration has cut off funding for WFP’s emergency programs in Yemen.
A WFP official said the organization was reducing its staff in Yemen, and that around 200 employees – 40 percent of its workforce – have been given a month’s notice. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the personnel situation.
“We have now a challenge in the south when it comes to the funding,” Skau said. “But we’re hoping that that can be resolved moving forward.”

Topics: Yemen WFP Houthis UN

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Hamas ready to release all remaining hostages for end to Gaza war, Hamas’ Gaza chief says

Updated 17 April 2025
Reuters
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Hamas ready to release all remaining hostages for end to Gaza war, Hamas’ Gaza chief says

  • Al-Hayya, who leads the Hamas negotiating team for indirect talks with Israel, said the group refused an interim truce deal”
  • “Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda”
Updated 17 April 2025
Reuters

CAIRO: Hamas’ Gaza chief said the group was ready to immediately negotiate a deal to swap all hostages for an agreed number of Palestinians jailed by Israel as part of a broader deal to end the war in the enclave.
In a televised speech, Khalil Al-Hayya, who leads the Hamas negotiating team for indirect talks with Israel, said the group refused an interim truce deal.
“Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners (hostages). We will not be part of passing this policy,” said Hayya, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Egyptian mediators have been working to revive the January ceasefire agreement that halted fighting in Gaza before breaking down last month, but there has been little sign of progress with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the lack of a deal.
The latest round of talks on Monday in Cairo to restore the ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.
Hayya said that Hamas accepted a proposal by the mediators, Qatar and Egypt, to release some hostages in return for Palestinians jailed by Israel and begin talks on implementing the second phase of the ceasefire agreement that includes ending the war and Israeli forces’ withdrawal from Gaza.
He accused Israel of offering a counterproposal with “impossible conditions.”

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Hamas Khalil Al-Hayya

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