Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread
But bakers, millers and consumers fear the product will smell and taste different
Updated 05 October 2024
Arab News
RIYADH: Egypt plans to save millions of dollars in import costs by replacing a fifth of the wheatflour in the nation’s bread with cheaper ingredients such as corn or sorghum, industry sources said on Friday.
But bakers and millers reacted with anger when the plan was put to them by the Supply Ministry, and consumers fear their bread will taste different. “The change could be unpopular, producing bread with a different texture and smell,” said Hesham Soliman, a trader in Cairo.
Bakeries oppose the plan because coarser flour requires lengthier baking and would increase labor costs. Mills are also opposed because they are paid based on how much wheat they process, which would be reduced.
Egypt has tried wheat substitution to reduce imports before. Corn was used for several years two decades ago before campaigning by industry groups pushed the government to abandon it.
In another money-saving move, the government raised the price of subsidised bread this year for the first time in decades.
Egypt needs about 8.25 million tonnes of wheat a year to make subsidised bread available to more than 70 million people. It is one of the world’s largest wheat importers, mostly from Russia, at a cost of more than $2 billion a year.
Palestinians flee Gaza City under Israeli bombardment
Residents of Gaza say they have nowhere else to go, noting that Israel has repeatedly struck the area in the south where it has urged people to move
The scenes of mass flight from Gaza City came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel in a show of support
Updated 55 min 19 sec ago
AFP
GAZA CITY: Palestinian families streamed out of Gaza City on Sunday, some crammed into pick-up trucks, others on foot, as Israeli forces pressed their assault on the territory’s main urban center.
Parents carried their children while the elderly hobbled along, an AFP journalist reported.
A man in a wheelchair and another on crutches were among the long line of people heading south under Israeli military orders.
The military has issued multiple evacuation warnings for Gaza City, but many residents have told AFP they have nowhere else to go, noting that Israel has repeatedly struck the area in the south where it has urged people to move.
The scenes of mass flight from Gaza City came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel in a show of support, despite an Israeli strike in Qatar this week.
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued on Sunday a warning to those in Gaza’s port area and Al-Rimal neighborhood to evacuate immediately to a “humanitarian zone” in the south, where Gazans say there is no more space to pitch tents.
He had on Saturday said more than 250,000 Gaza City residents had already fled, while Gaza’s civil defense agency said the figure was closer to 68,000.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.
Panic and extreme fear
Prior to the latest assault, the United Nations had estimated that around a million people lived in and around the city, where it officially declared famine last month.
AFP footage showed exhausted families moving along the coastal road near Nuseirat south of Gaza City, with their belongings stacked high in vehicles.
In the city itself, “the bombardment hasn’t stopped since dawn,” said Umm Alaa Shaaban, 45, a resident of Tal Al-Hawa district in Gaza City’s southwest.
“We haven’t slept all night... The sounds of shelling and explosions have not stopped until now,” she told AFP.
According to Shaaban, the Israeli air force “bombed many houses... we were terribly afraid — my children screamed in terror.
“We don’t know where to go. The bombardment is everywhere.”
Mohammed Ghazal, 32, who fled from Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood, also said the strikes were relentless.
“We are living in a state of panic and extreme fear. The shelling hasn’t stopped since dawn, the explosions are intense and the shooting continuous,” he told AFP.
“Israeli forces are using terrifying methods and escalating the bombardment to frighten us and force us to flee south.”
In recent days, the Israeli military has targeted several high-rise buildings in Gaza City, saying they were being used by Hamas militants.
On Sunday, it said it had struck another high-rise where Hamas had set up “observation posts to monitor the location of... troops in the area.”
AFP also saw an Israeli leaflet dropped on residents, telling them they were in a “dangerous combat zone” — a message the military has repeated for weeks.
Across the the Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes killed 23 people since dawn Sunday, according to the Gaza civil defense agency.
Qatar PM urges world to ‘stop using double standards’ and punish Israel
Israeli airstrikes widely condemned across Arab, Islamic world as violation of Qatar’s sovereignty
Prince Faisal bin Farhan heads Kingdom’s delegation at emergency summit in Doha
Updated 14 September 2025
Arab News
RIYADH: Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani urged the international community on Sunday to “stop using double standards” and punish Israel for what he described as its “crimes.”
He was speaking at a preparatory meeting on the eve of an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic leaders organized by Qatar after Israel carried out an unprecedented air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.
“The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed, and Israel needs to know that the ongoing war of extermination that our brotherly Palestinian people is being subjected to, and whose aim is to expel them from their land, will not work,” the prime minister said.
The preparatory meeting of foreign ministers for the emergency joint Arab-Islamic summit commenced on Sunday in Doha under Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership.
The summit is to discuss a draft statement regarding the Israeli attack on Qatar on Sept. 9, which targeted the residences of several Hamas officials in Doha, according to the Qatar News Agency.
The airstrikes, which left several dead and wounded, were widely condemned across the Arab and Islamic world as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and international law.
Foreign ministers of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states are attending the summit on Sunday, including Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denounced the Israeli attack as an “aggressive act” and reiterated the Kingdom’s solidarity with Doha, stressing the need for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its actions, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Jordanian medical teams’ efforts to treat Palestinians continue
60-year-old patient had complex comminuted fracture of humerus, severe tissue damage
Family thanks King Abdullah II, commends field hospital’s staff
Updated 14 September 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Medical teams from Jordan conducted a complex operation on a 60-year-old patient at a field hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, as part of humanitarian efforts to support Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
The patient had a comminuted fracture of the humerus, along with severe tissue damage. The hospital commander said the operation involved specialized surgeons, along with operating and anesthesia technicians. The patient’s injury involved missing bone that hindered healing, he added.
An orthopedic surgeon explained that the patient had dead and infected tissue removed, the bone stabilized with plates and screws, and grafts from the pelvis and fibula used to fill the gap and support recovery, according to the Jordan News Agency.
The patient’s family thanked King Abdullah II of Jordan and praised the field hospital’s staff for their efforts to mitigate the impact of the conflict on Gaza’s population.
A new Jordanian field hospital began operating in Gaza in August, offering medical services in various specialties to support the Palestinian health sector.
Jordan has been at the forefront of providing humanitarian aid and food supplies to Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the Israeli attacks in October 2023, whether through aid convoys or airdrops.
Paramilitary drones hit key sites in Sudan’s south: army official
Multiple paramilitary drones attacked key army positions and civilian infrastructure in Sudan’s south on Sunday, an army official told AFP, just a week after similar strikes hit the capital
Updated 14 September 2025
AFP
KHARTOUM: Multiple paramilitary drones attacked key army positions and civilian infrastructure in Sudan’s south on Sunday, an army official told AFP, just a week after similar strikes hit the capital.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a brutal war between the regular armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.
Sunday’s strikes targeted the headquarters of the Sudanese army’s 18th Division, along with fuel depots on the western bank of the Nile, east of the army-held city of Kosti in White Nile state, the official said.
Additional attacks hit the Kenana air base and airport, located southeast of Kosti, while drones also struck the Um Dabakir power station, east of the city, the official added on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Eyewitnesses in Kosti, located some 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Khartoum, reported extremely loud explosions during the attacks.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks and the extent of the damage remains unclear.
An army spokesman separately said that a number of paramilitary drones targeted early Saturday facilities in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state.
Army air defenses intercepted the drones on El-Obeid, located about 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) southwest of Khartoum, the spokesman said, adding that no casualties were reported.
The army did not specify which facilities were targeted.
The attacks come days after a wave of RSF drone strikes targeted key infrastructure and army installations in and around Khartoum, including a power station, an oil refinery, a weapons factory and an air base.
The RSF’s Tasis administration, which has declared itself the governing authority in paramilitary-held areas, later claimed responsibility, describing them as “precise and successful air strikes.”
Following the army’s recapture of the capital in March, the RSF has increasingly used drones to attack army-controlled areas, often targeting critical infrastructure and causing widespread power outages affecting millions.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire between warring parties have so far failed.
On Saturday, Sudan’s army-aligned government pushed back against a new peace proposal from four influential foreign powers — the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
The proposal called for a humanitarian truce, followed by a permanent ceasefire and a transition toward civilian rule.
The four nations also suggested that no warring party should be included in the post-war transition — a proposal swiftly rejected by the government.
Sudan’s current state institutions remain under army control.
The conflict has effectively split the country, with the army holding the north, east and center, while the RSF dominates parts of the south and nearly all of the western Darfur region.
Netanyahu gambled by targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar. It appears to have backfired
The airstrike has enraged Qatar, an influential US ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, and drawn heavy criticism across the Arab world
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that after the strike, “I don’t think there’s anything valid” in the current talks
Updated 14 September 2025
AP
JERUSALEM: When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered this week’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar, he took a major gamble in his campaign to pound the group into submission.
With signs growing that the mission failed, that gamble appears to have backfired.
Netanyahu had hoped to kill Hamas’ senior exiled leaders to get closer toward his vision of “total victory” against the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and pressure it into surrendering after nearly two years of war in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, Hamas claims its leaders survived, and Netanyahu’s global standing, already badly damaged by the scenes of destruction and humanitarian disaster in Gaza, took another hit.
This frame grab taken from an AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after an Israeli airstrike in Qatar's capital Doha on September 9, 2025. (AFP)
The airstrike Tuesday has enraged Qatar, an influential US ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, and drawn heavy criticism across the Arab world. It also has strained relations with the White House and thrown hopes of reaching a ceasefire into disarray, potentially endangering the 20 hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza.
But while the strike marks a setback for Netanyahu, the Israeli leader shows no sign of backing down or halting the war. And with his hard-line coalition still firmly behind him, Netanyahu faces no immediate threat to his rule.
Netanyahu’s hope for an ‘image of victory’ for his government
Five low-level Hamas members and a Qatari security guard were killed in the strike. But Hamas has said the intended target, senior exiled leaders meeting to discuss a new US ceasefire proposal, all survived. The group, however, has not released any photos of the leaders, and Qatar has not commented on their conditions.
If the airstrike had killed the top leadership, the attack could have provided Netanyahu an opportunity declare Hamas’ destruction, said Harel Chorev, an expert on Arab affairs at Tel Aviv University.
“It’s all very symbolic and it’s definitely part of the thing which allows Netanyahu at a certain point to say ‘We won, we killed them all,’” he said.
Israel’s fierce 23-month offensive in Gaza has wiped out all of Hamas’ top leadership inside the territory. But Netanyahu has set out to eradicate the group as part of his goal of “total victory.”
Displaced Palestinians evacuate southbound from Gaza City, traveling on foot and by vehicle, along the coastal road in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on September 13, 2025, amid another Israeli military offensive. (AFP)
That is now looking increasingly unlikely, making it even harder for Netanyahu to push a ceasefire through his hard-line coalition.
Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition have cornered Netanyahu, threatening to topple his government unless Israel pushes ahead with an expanded operation in Gaza City, despite serious misgivings by many in the military leadership and widespread opposition among Israel’s public.
A successful operation in Qatar could have allowed Netanyahu to placate the hard-liners, even though it would have eliminated the very officials responsible for negotiating a possible ceasefire.
Burning the channel with Qatar
Israel has had the ability to target Hamas leaders in Doha from the start of the war but did not want to antagonize the Qataris while negotiations took place, Chorev said.
Qatar has helped negotiate two previous ceasefires that have released 148 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s military has rescued just eight hostages alive, and retrieved the bodies of 51 hostages.
While Israel has complained that Qatar was not putting pressure on Hamas, it had continued to leave that channel open — until Tuesday.
“Israel, by the attack, notified the whole world that it gave up on the negotiations,” Chorev said. “They’ve decided to burn the channel with Qatar.”
Asked if ceasefire talks would continue, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that after the strike, “I don’t think there’s anything valid” in the current talks. But he did not elaborate and stopped short of saying Qatar would end its mediation efforts.
How Netanyahu hopes to win the release of the remaining hostages remains unclear.
Protesters join a demonstration at 'Hostage Square' in Tel Aviv on September 13, 2025, calling on Israel for a ceasefire in its war on Gaza so as not to endanger the lives of the captives captives still in the hands of Palestinian militants. (AFP)
On Thursday, Sheikh Mohammed accused Israel of abandoning the hostages.
“Extremists that rule Israel today do not care about the hostages — otherwise, how do we justify the timing of this attack?” Sheikh Mohammed told the UN Security Council.
Nonetheless, he said his country was ready to resume its mediation without giving any indication of next steps. On Friday, Sheikh Mohammed met in Washington with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was scheduled to visit Israel this weekend in a sign of how the Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies.
Straining ties with the US
Netanyahu, who has received ironclad support from the US since President Donald Trump returned to office, appears to have strained ties with his most important ally.
Trump said he was “very unhappy” about the airstrike and assured the Qataris such an attack would not happen again.
Trump, however, has not said whether he would take any punitive action against Israel or indicated that he will pressure Netanyahu to halt the war.
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Protesters join a demonstration at 'Hostage Square' in Tel Aviv on September 13, 2025, calling on Israel for a ceasefire in its war on Gaza so as not to endanger the lives of the captives captives still in the hands of Palestinian militants. (AFP)
etanyahu, in the meantime, remains undeterred and threatened additional action if Qatar continues to host the Hamas leadership.
The message to Hamas is clear, he said Thursday: “There is no place where we cannot reach you.”
Little impact on the war in Gaza
Israel is pressing ahead with its expanded offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City. The military has urged a full evacuation of the area holding around 1 million people ahead of an expected invasion.
“Netanyahu’s government is adamant to go on with the military operation in Gaza,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Israel has brushed off calls to halt the war from the United Nations, the European Union and a growing number of major Western countries who plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN Security Council later this month, she said.
The only one who might be able to change this trajectory is Trump, she added, by telling Israel “enough is enough.”
Netanyahu’s political future unthreatened
If Hamas’ leaders survived, and the negotiations collapse, Netanyahu will further alienate the roughly two-thirds of the Israeli public who want an end to the war and a deal to bring home the hostages.
But that opposition has been in place for months, with little influence on Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu’s future in the near term doesn’t depend on the Israeli public,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
Instead, his political survival depends on his governing coalition, many of whom have expressed wholehearted support for the assassination attempt.
This has sparked panic and more suffering for the families of the hostages still held in Gaza.
Einav Zangauker, whose son, Matan, is among the captives, said this week she was “shaking with fear” after hearing about Israel’s attack in Doha.
“Why does the prime minister insist on blowing up every chance for a deal?” she asked, on the verge of tears. “Why?”
