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
Several countries send firefighting planes to Israel to help tackle major wildfire
JERUSALEM: Several countries were sending firefighting aircraft to Israel on Thursday as crews battled for a second day to extinguish a wildfire that had shut down a major highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and sent drivers scrambling from their cars.
The fire broke out around midday on Wednesday, fueled by hot, dry conditions and fanned by strong winds that quickly whipped up the flames, burning through a pine forest.
Several communities were evacuated as a precaution as the smoke turned the skies over Jerusalem gray.
The fire has burned about 20 sq. km and is the most significant fire Israel has had in the past decade, according to Tal Volvovitch, a spokesperson for Israel’s fire and rescue authority.
She said the fire has “miraculously” not damaged any homes.
Israel’s fire and rescue authority warned the public to stay away from parks or forests, and to be exceptionally careful while lighting barbecues.
Thursday is Israel’s Independence Day, which is typically marked with large family cookouts in parks and forests.
At least 12 people were treated in hospitals on Wednesday, mainly due to smoke inhalation, while another 10 people were treated in the field, Magen David Adom Ambulance services said.
Italy, Croatia, Spain, France, Ukraine, and Romania were sending planes to help battle the flames, while several other countries, including North Macedonia and Cyprus, were also sending water-dropping aircraft.
Israeli authorities said 10 firefighting planes were operating on Thursday morning, with another eight aircraft to arrive during the day.
Israel’s fire and rescue authority lifted the evacuation order on approximately a dozen towns in the Jerusalem hills on Thursday.
Three Catholic religious communities that were forced to evacuate from their properties on Wednesday could also return on Thursday, said Farid Jubran, the spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate.
He said their agricultural lands, including vineyards and olive trees, suffered heavy damage, and some buildings were damaged.
But there were no injuries, and historic churches were not affected.
The main highway linking Jerusalem to Tel Aviv was opened again on Thursday, a day after the flames had encroached on the road, forcing drivers to abandon their cars and flee in terror.
On Thursday morning, broad swathes of burned areas were visible from the highway, while pink anti-flame retardant dusted the top of burned trees and bushes.
Smoke and the smell of fire hung heavy in the air.
In 2010, a massive forest fire burned for four days on northern Israel’s Mount Carmel, claiming 44 lives and destroying around 12,000 acres, much of it woodland.
Syrian Druze leader Al-Hijri slams ‘genocidal campaign’, Israel issues warning
- Syrian Druze spiritual leader denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an 'unjustifiable genocidal campaign'
- The Syrian Observatory said the violence had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups
DAMASCUS: Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a “genocidal campaign” against his community after two days of sectarian clashes left 101 people dead.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned his country would respond “with significant force” if Syria’s new authorities fail to protect the Druze minority.
The violence poses a serious challenge to the new Syrian authorities who ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.
It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It was the worst bloodshed since the ouster of Assad, who is from the minority community.
The government (should) protect its people
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, Druze spiritual leader
Hijri in a statement on Thursday denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an “unjustifiable genocidal campaign” against the Druze.
He called for immediate intervention by “international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes.”
Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror.”
In a later statement, Katz said: “Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force.”
The Syrian Observatory said the fighting had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups.
The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya’s former mayor, Husam Warwar.
In the southern province of Sweida, heartland of the Druze minority, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an “ambush” on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.
The monitor told AFP the fighters were killed “by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defense and gunmen associated with them.”
Blasphemous audio
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.
AFP was unable to confirm the recording’s authenticity.
Truces was reached in Jaramana on Tuesday and in Sahnaya on Wednesday.
The government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused “outlaw groups” of instigating the clashes.
However, Hijri said he no longer trusts “an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres.”
Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz
“The government (should) protect its people,” he said.
Syria’s new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists.
On Wednesday, a foreign ministry statement vowed to “protect all components” of Syrian society, including the Druze, and rejected “foreign interference.”
Israeli air strikes
Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria’s rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival.”
“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.
Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday. Israel said its forces were ordered to hit Syrian government targets “should the violence against Druze communities continue.”
“A stern message was conveyed to the Syrian regime — Israel expects them to act to prevent harm to the Druze community,” a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel has attacked hundreds of military sites in Syria since Assad’s overthrow.
It has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights and voiced support for Syria’s Druze.
Israel’s military said Thursday two injured Syrian Druze had been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment.
A United Nations statement urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint” and “uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.”
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill at least 29
- Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee
- Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Thursday Israeli bombardment killed at least 29 people since midnight in the war-ravaged territory, which has been under Israeli aid blockade for nearly two months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said that while the military’s mission was to bring home all the hostages from Gaza, its “supreme goal” was to achieve victory against Hamas.
Israel resumed its campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas whose 2023 attack triggered the conflict.
Civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir said Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza.
Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood, he told AFP.
At least 17 more were killed in other attacks across the Palestinian territory, including one that hit a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir el-Balah, the agency said.
“We came here and found all these houses destroyed, and children, women and young people all bombed to pieces,” said Ahmed Abu Zarqa after a deadly strike in Khan Yunis.
“This is no way to live. Enough, we’re tired, enough!
“We don’t know what to do with our lives any more. We’d rather die than live this kind of life.”
At Nasser Hospital
AFP images showed residents digging through rubble in search of bodies, which were carried away on stretchers under blankets.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, rescuers rushed a screaming wounded child out of an ambulance, as a group of women mourned.
“What have the children done wrong? What have we done wrong? Enough is enough. Just drop a nuclear bomb on us,” said Ghada Abu Sahlul as she mourned the death of a relative.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel vows ‘significant force’ if Syria govt fails to protect Druze
- At least 101 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes near Syria’s capital, most of them Druze fighters, a war monitor said
JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria’s government fails to protect the Druze minority, after two days of deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus.
“Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze in recent days, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror.”
At least 101 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes near Syria’s capital, most of them Druze fighters, a war monitor said in an updated toll on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Israel carried out a strike against what it called an “extremist group” preparing to attack members of the Druze community near Damascus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike on the town of Sahnaya sent a “stern message” to Syria’s new government.
Israel’s armed forces chief later ordered the military to prepare to strike Syrian government targets if the Druze community faced more violence.
Israel’s military said two injured Druze Syrians were evacuated from Syria on Thursday for treatment in Israel, after announcing Wednesday that three had been evacuated.
It did not specify how or where they had been injured.
In its statement on Thursday, it said they were taken for treatment to the town of Safed in northern Israel “after sustaining injuries in Syrian territory.”
“The IDF (military) is deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages,” it added.
Weekend round of nuclear talks between US and Iran postponed
- Message online from Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi made the announcement in a post on the social platform X
DUBAI: Planned negotiations between Iran and the United States this weekend over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program have been postponed, Oman announced Thursday.
A message online from Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi made the announcement in a post on the social platform X.
“For logistical reasons we are rescheduling the US Iran meeting provisionally planned for Saturday May 3rd,” he wrote. “New dates will be announced when mutually agreed.”
Al-Busaidi, who has mediated the talks through three rounds so far, did not elaborate.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei issued a statement describing the talks as being “postponed at the request of Oman’s foreign minister.” He said Iran remain committed to reaching ”a fair and lasting agreement.”
Meanwhile, a person familiar with the US negotiators said that America “had never confirmed its participation” in a fourth round of talks in Rome. However, the person said the US expected the talks to occur “in the near future.” The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.
Rome soon will see the Vatican begin the conclave on Wednesday to pick a new pope after the death of Pope Francis. Two other rounds of talks have been held in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on a half-century of enmity. The negotiations have been led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers did limit Tehran’s program. However, Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018, setting in motion years of attacks and tensions. The wider Middle East also remains on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the US continues an airstrike campaign, called “Operation Rough Rider,” that has been targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who long have been backed by Iran. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth early Thursday warned Iran over the rebels.
“Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,” he wrote. “You know very well what the US Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.”
Last Saturday’s round of talks, which included experts drilling down into the details of a possible deal, also took place as an explosion rocked an Iranian port, killing at least 70 people and injuring more than 1,000 others.
