NAZLET EL-SHARIF, Egypt: The 42-year-old Egyptian farmer was watering his crops along the Nile River south of the capital of Cairo and scrolling on his mobile phone when he learned that two of his sons were dead.
Ashraf Sadawy Abdel-Fattah saw a list on social media with names of Egyptians killed in the horrific flooding that tore through the city of Derna in neighboring Libya on Sunday night.
His second-eldest son, Mohamed, 23, and Abdel-Rahman, who was 19, were on the list, along with six relatives and scores of other men from their village.
“It’s a great shock for the family, but also for the entire village,” Abdel-Fattah said, speaking to The Associated Press on Thursday outside his home in Nazlet el-Sharif, a village in the province of Beni Sueif.
At least 74 men from the village, some as young as 17, were killed when Mediterranean storm Daniel unleashed heavy rainfall on Derna on Sunday night. Two dams in the mountains above the city burst, sending a wall of water two stories high that wreaked destruction and swept entire neighborhoods out to sea.
The deluge proved deadly for thousands in just seconds, uprooting apartment buildings and washing away roads and bridges. More than 11,300 people were reported killed, according to the Libyan Red Crescent — including scores of Egyptians who had lived and worked in Derna for years.
Days later, searchers are digging through mud and hollowed-out buildings in Derna for 10,000 people missing and feared dead.
“It was like hell,” said Rashad Ezzat Abdel-Hamid, a 45-year-old Egyptian who survived the disaster. He said he and seven other Egyptians rushed to the roof of their three-story building when the wall of water surged through their street in the city center.
An untold number of people were washed away in the densely populated urban area, said Abdel-Hamid. When he came down after the surge subsided, it was a scene of horror.
Lifeless bodies, clothes, wrecked cars and furniture lay everywhere in the streets, inundated with mud and debris. Buildings had collapsed or were partially destroyed. Around him, people were wailing and crying, looking for their loved ones and trying to retrieve those under the rubble.
“Entire families drowned inside their homes. Others washed way to the sea,” said Abdel-Hamid, who returned to Egypt on Thursday. “Nothing was left but rubble.”
In comments to the Saudi-owned Al Arabia television station, Derna Mayor Abdel-Moneim Al-Ghaithi said earlier this week the death toll could climb up to 20,000, given the number of neighborhoods hit by the wall of water.
Thousands of Egyptians were living in Derna, most of them working in construction projects in the city and the surrounding areas, said Abdel-Hamid. He had gone there only six months ago.
Egyptians have for decades gravitated to oil-rich Libya for work. In recent years, young Egyptians, like other Middle Eastern and African people fleeing conflicts and poverty, also used Libya as a transit point to try to reach Europe, across the Mediterranean Sea.
Libyan authorities say that so far, bodies of 145 Egyptians killed in Derna have been found. Dozens were buried in Libya, while 84 were taken to the nearby city of Tobruk and flown home, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said.
In Nazlet el-Sharif, 167 kilometers (103 miles) from Cairo, 74 village men were buried in a mass funeral on Wednesday attended by local officials and hundreds of villagers.
The grief reverberates through the poor farming village, where cows and donkeys share dirt roads with cars, motorbikes and horse-drawn carts. Village homes face date palms groves and the fields are green with clover, corn and other grains.
“Some families lost one son, some two, and others lost three,” said Moustafa Aweis Moustafa, a retired civil servant. “These young men went there to help their families.”
Abdel-Fattah’s Mohammed went to Libya three years ago to try to make their lives better, working as a day laborer in Derna, sending whatever money he could save to his father to keep the family going as Egypt sunk deeper into an economic crisis.
Earlier this year, Abdel-Rahman joined his brother in Derna after two years unsuccessfully looking for work in Egypt, their father said.
The last time spoke to them was on Sep. 8, a half-hour video call with the rest of the family. Mohamed talked to his mother about plans to marry and eagerly listened to news of how his new apartment was coming along. His father was building it for him, adding a third floor to the family home.
Abdel-Fattah’s three nephews also died in Derna. Their mother, his sister-in-law, is in shock, unable to speak four days later, he said.
“The whole family has been ruined,” he said.
He finds little solace in the fact that he has been able to bury his sons — his heart goes out to other villagers, whose boys were buried hundreds of miles away in mass graves in Libya.
He keeps looking at the photos of his sons on his phone, and tears choke him up over and over again.
“They wanted us to live a better life,” he said of his two sons. “It’s a disaster, a disaster the whole village.”
Egyptian village mourns scores of its men killed in flooding in Libya where they worked for years
https://arab.news/wnefx
Egyptian village mourns scores of its men killed in flooding in Libya where they worked for years

- At least 74 men from the village, some as young as 17, were killed when Mediterranean storm Daniel unleashed heavy rainfall on Derna on Sunday night
- The deluge proved deadly for thousands in just seconds, uprooting apartment buildings and washing away roads and bridges
Israel army says 2 projectiles launched from Gaza after air raid sirens sound

- One projectile was intercepted and the other fell in an open area
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said two projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, shortly after it announced it had commenced “extensive ground operations” across the besieged Palestinian territory.
“Following the sirens that sounded in Kissufim, two projectiles were identified crossing into Israel from the central Gaza Strip,” the army said, adding one was intercepted and the other fell in an open area.
Israeli forces have demolished 600 Palestinian houses in Jenin since January offensive

- Shops, houses and infrastructure in Al-Sharqi and Al-Hadaf neighbourhoods sustain heaviest damage
- Forces arrest a prisoner who was released during Israel-Hamas truce in November 2023
LONDON: Israeli forces have demolished nearly 600 Palestinian houses in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the town municipality, where Israel has been carrying out military operations for the past 118 days.
On Sunday, forces intensified dredging and destruction operations in the Jenin refugee camp, causing significant damage to its water and electricity infrastructure and main roads, while continuing to block access to the area.
The Jenin Municipality has documented the total destruction of 600 houses in the camp, while others were either partially damaged or have been abandoned by residents since Israel launched a major offensive in January.
The neighborhoods of Al-Sharqi and Al-Hadaf sustained the heaviest damage — to shops, houses and infrastructure — the Wafa news agency reported.
Also on Sunday, Israeli forces arrested Yasmeen Shaaban at her home in Al-Jalameh village, north of Jenin. Shaaban, who spent 21 months in prison, was released in November 2023 during the first temporary truce and captive-exchange arrangement between Israel and Hamas.
The municipality reported that 22,000 people are displaced in Jenin as Israeli forces increase enforcement in the town and its refugee camp. The military operation has caused heavy losses to businesses in Jenin, leading to many shop closures and a decrease in shopper footfall from nearby villages, with an estimated loss of $300 million.
Since Israel launched its offensive on January 21 in Jenin, at least 40 people have been killed, while hundreds have been arrested and injured.
Italian MPs protest at Egypt’s Gaza border against war

- The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now”
RAFAH: Italian parliamentarians protested on Sunday in front of Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza, calling for aid access and an end to the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“Europe is not doing enough, nothing to stop the massacre,” Cecilia Strada, an Italian member of the European parliament, told AFP.
The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now,” “End illegal occupation” and “Stop arming Israel.”
“There should be a complete embargo on weapons to and from Israel and a stop to trade with illegal settlements,” Strada said.
The protesters laid toys on the ground in solidarity with Gaza’s children, who the UN warns face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” more than two months into a total Israeli aid blockade.
At least 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, according to the United Nations.
Israel has faced mounting pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.
It resumed its offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in its war against Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
On Saturday Israel announced an expanded military campaign, killing dozens of people in new strikes.
“We hear the bombs right now,” Walter Massa, president of Italian non-profit organization Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana, told AFP near the crossing.
“The Israeli army continues to do what it believes is right in the face of an international community that does not intervene, and in Gaza, beyond the Rafah crossing border, people continue to die,” he said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now.”
Italy’s government on Saturday reiterated its calls to Israel to stop attacking Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.”
“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said.
Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.
Lebanon says soldier among two wounded in Israeli strike

BEIRUT: Lebanon said two people including a soldier were wounded in an Israeli strike Sunday in the country’s south, where the army has been deploying after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“A soldier was moderately wounded due to the Israeli enemy targeting of a vehicle... at the Beit Yahun checkpoint” in Bint Jbeil district, an army statement said.
Beit Yahun is around eight kilometers (around five miles) from the border.
The health ministry said two people including a soldier were wounded in the strike, which it said was launched by an “Israeli enemy drone” and targeted a vehicle.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reported strike.
Israel has continued to launch raids on its neighbor despite a November truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah militants including two months of all-out war.
Lebanon has reported four deadly strikes this week in the south, with Israel saying it targeted Hezbollah operatives.
Under the ceasefire, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”
The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.
The truce was based on a United Nations Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
Last month, President Joseph Aoun said the army was deployed in more than 85 percent of the south, and that the sole obstacle to full control across the frontier area was “Israel’s occupation of five border positions.”
Also in April, Lebanon’s military said a munitions blast in the south killed three personnel, days after an explosion killed another soldier as the force was dismantling mines in a tunnel.
Israel strikes kill at least 130 in Gaza, negotiators seek ceasefire

- Overnight airstrikes on Gaza hit as Israel prepares for a new ground offensive aimed at achieving “operational control” in parts of Gaza
CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli strikes killed at least 130 Palestinians across Gaza overnight, health officials said on Sunday, as Israel said talks with Hamas included a proposal to end the war but sources on both sides said there had been no progress in the talks.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the latest indirect talks in Doha included discussions on a truce and hostage deal as well as a proposal to end the war in return for the exile of Hamas militants and the demilitarization of the enclave, terms Hamas has previously rejected.
The substance of the statement was in line with previous declarations from Israel, but the timing, as negotiators meet, offered some prospect of flexibility in Israel’s position. A senior Israeli official said there had been no progress in the talks so far.
A Hamas official told Reuters: “Israel’s position remains unchanged, they want to release the prisoners (hostages) without a commitment to end the war.”
He reiterated that Hamas was proposing releasing all Israeli hostages in return for an end to the war, the pull-out of Israeli troops, an end to a blockade on aid for Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The overnight airstrikes on Gaza hit as Israel prepares for a new ground offensive aimed at achieving “operational control” in parts of Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 464 Palestinians were killed in the week to Sunday as a result of Israel’s escalated bombardment. The deaths of at least 130 Palestinians overnight are in addition to that figure.
“Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by (overnight) Israeli bombardment,” Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told Reuters by phone.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the casualties.
Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March to try to pressure Hamas into freeing Israeli hostages and has approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza strip and controlling aid.
“Hospitals overwhelmed”
Reports in Israeli and Arab media that Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar may have been killed could potentially complicate the Doha talks, which began on Saturday.
Hamas neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Israel’s Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.
Gaza medics said contrary to earlier reports Zakaria Al-Sinwar, a history lecturer at a Gaza university and the brother of Hamas’ leader, was alive but in critical condition.
He was placed in the morgue earlier with his three children, before medics realized he was still breathing and moved him to an intensive care unit.
“Hospitals are overwhelmed with a growing number of casualties, many are children,” health ministry spokesman Deqran said.
In Israel, Einav Zangauker, the mother of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker, said Netanyahu was refusing to end the war in exchange for Hamas releasing the remaining hostages because of his political interests.
“The Israeli government still insists on only partial deals. They are deliberately tormenting us. Bring our children back already! All 58 of them,” Zangauker said in a post on the X social media platform.
Tents ablaze
One of Israel’s overnight strikes hit a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing women and children, wounding dozens and setting several tents ablaze.
Later on Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry said the Indonesian Hospital, one of the largest partially functioning medical facilities in north Gaza, had ceased operating because of Israeli fire near and at the vicinity.
Israel’s military said its troops were operating against “terrorist infrastructure sites” in northern Gaza, including in the area adjacent to the Indonesian hospital.
Gaza’s health care system is barely operational because of repeated Israeli bombardment and raids on hospitals. The blockade on aid supplies has compounded its difficulties, and worsened widespread hunger. Israel blames Hamas for stealing aid, which Hamas denies.
Staff at Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, urged people to donate blood. Hospital officials said they received 40 dead and dozens of wounded overnight because of continued Israeli strikes.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 75 percent of its ambulances had stopped operating because of fuel shortages. It warned that unless fuel is allowed in within 72 hours, all vehicles may stop.
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, which attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.
The Israeli military campaign has devastated the enclave, pushing nearly all residents from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.