‘Mercy tables’ in Egypt suffer from economic crisis as Ramadan nears
Updated 29 February 2024
LAILA MOHAMED
CAIRO: Rising food prices and shortages may lead to fewer donations and less food for “tables of mercy” in Egypt during Ramadan.
Such tables are usually seen on Egypt’s streets to provide lower-income people with free iftar.
“There are many philanthropists in Egypt, but the high prices of food items constrain them,” said Kamal Khairy, a cook who worked at the tables in previous years.
A kilogram of meat is now priced at 450 Egyptian pounds ($14.56) in some areas, while a kilogram of rice costs 40 pounds. The price of vegetables has risen to unreasonable levels, Khairy told Arab News.
The meal cost has increased significantly, causing some philanthropists to withdraw from setting up tables this year.
“Before the COVID-19 outbreak, I used to cook at different tables upon request by philanthropists,” he said.
“In one year, I cooked for three tables — one in the morning, another in the afternoon, and the third before sunset. However, no one has asked me this year.”
A 50-year-old Egyptian, who declined to be named, told Arab News: “In previous years, I used to set up a free iftar table near my factory in Al-Azhar. However, I cannot afford the extra expense due to financial constraints this year.”
He said the factory was struggling financially, so he had been cutting expenses.
A car park attendant on Hoda Shaarawi Street in Cairo who gave his name as Uncle Ahmed told Arab News: “Due to the nature of my job, I cannot go home during Ramadan. Therefore, I rely on the ‘mercy table’ set up on the street, where I am a regular guest.”
The man, nearing 60, added: “I used to sit at a table alongside people from diverse social backgrounds, such as delivery workers, nurses, conscripts, and passersby.
“The table used to accommodate more than 500 people but now fits only 50.”
He said that in the past, a meal would typically consist of a meat dish (such as chicken or kofta), a vegetable dish, a salad and rice or pasta.
“There is only one dish that contains rice and vegetables this year, and the size of the chicken and meat has been reduced. Additionally, the salad portion has been reduced."
Ahmed added: “The crisis affects everyone, and we don’t expect more from the philanthropists. I excuse them.
“I pray that our crises in Egypt will be resolved.”
Farid Jamal, a worker at a charity hosting a table, said: “In previous years, people would arrive an hour before the Maghrib prayer, but now they come three hours earlier.
“The social composition has also changed. I see young men and men from good social levels wearing relatively elegant clothes and women who appear to be in a good situation, all reserving their places at the table to get an iftar meal.”
Sudan army says retakes central bank after palace recapture
Updated 11 sec ago
AFP
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s military said Saturday it seized several key buildings in central Khartoum, including the central bank, from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, following its recapture of the presidential palace.
“Our forces achieved further success last night, eliminating hundreds of militia members who tried to escape through pockets in central Khartoum,” army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement to AFP, listing the buildings recaptured, including the central bank.
The army and allied armed groups retook the presidential palace on Friday from the RSF, which retaliated with a drone strike that killed three journalists and several army personnel.
Army sources said Friday RSF fighters had fled into buildings in Al-Mogran, an area just west of the palace housing banks and business headquarters.
The paramilitary forces had posted snipers in the district’s high-rises, which overlook both Omdurman across the Nile River and the ministries of central Khartoum.
The battle for Khartoum’s government and financial district could solidify the military’s hold on the capital, providing a significant advantage in the country’s devastating two-year war.
Since April 2023, the military led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan has fought the RSF, headed by Burhan’s former deputy commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million people and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
It has also split the country in two, with the army holding the east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of the western region of Darfur and parts of the south.
Israel strikes Lebanon in response to cross-border launch
The Israeli military said three rockets had entered Israeli territory but were intercepted
Updated 50 min 20 sec ago
Reuters
Jerusalem: Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes hit southern Lebanon on Saturday after Israel said it had intercepted rockets fired from across the border, threatening a shaky truce that ended a year-long war between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
That conflict marked the deadliest spillover of the Gaza war, rumbling across the border for months before escalating into a blistering Israeli offensive that wiped out Hezbollah’s top commanders, many of its fighters and much of its arsenal.
The Israeli military said earlier it intercepted three rockets launched from a Lebanese district approximately 6 km (4 miles) north of the border, the first cross-border launch since a US-brokered ceasefire in November ended the fighting.
Israel’s Army Radio said the military was returning artillery fire. Lebanon’s state news agency said Israeli artillery hit two towns in southern Lebanon and airstrikes hit three other towns closer to the border.
Israel did not say who was responsible for the cross-border launches. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to have no weapons in southern Lebanon, Israeli troops were to withdraw from the region, and Lebanese troops were to deploy to the area.
The agreement specifies that Lebanon’s government is responsible for dismantling all military infrastructure in southern Lebanon and confiscating all unauthorized arms.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the Lebanese government bears responsibility for the rockets fired onto the border town of Metula.
“We will not allow rocket fire from Lebanon on the Galilee communities. We promised security to the communities of the Galilee — and that is exactly how it will be. The rule for Metula is the rule for Beirut,” Katz said in a statement.
The ceasefire brought an end to Israel’s intense bombardment and ground operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s daily rocket barrages into Israel. Each side, however, has accused the other of failing to implement the deal in full.
Israel says Hezbollah still has military infrastructure in the south, while Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel is occupying Lebanese land by continuing to carry out some airstrikes and keeping its troops at five hilltop positions near the border.
Kurds in Iraq and Syria celebrate the Nowruz festival of spring at a time of new political horizons
Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for “new year,” is an ancient Persian festival that is celebrated in countries including Iraq, Syria, Turkiye and Iran
or many, Nowruz festivities symbolized not only the arrival of spring but also the spirit and aspirations of the Kurdish people
Updated 22 March 2025
AP
AKRE. Iraq: Kurds in Iraq and Syria this week marked the Nowruz festival, a traditional celebration of spring and renewal, at a time when many are hoping that a new political beginning is on the horizon.
Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for “new year,” is an ancient Persian festival that is celebrated in countries including Iraq, Syria, Turkiye and Iran. It is characterized by colorful street festivals and torch-bearing processions winding their way into the mountains.
For many, Thursday and Friday’s Nowruz festivities symbolized not only the arrival of spring but also the spirit and aspirations of the Kurdish people, who are now facing a moment of transformation in the region.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which holds sway in much of northeastern Syria, recently signed a landmark deal with the new government in Damascus that includes a ceasefire and eventual merging of the SDF into the Syrian army.
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye that has spilled over into conflict in Syria and northern Iraq, recently announced a ceasefire after the group’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, called for its members to put down their weapons.
In Iraq, calls for unity
As the sun set behind the mountains of Akre in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq Thursday, more than 1,500 volunteers climbed the steep hills, carrying burning torches as their faces shimmered in the light of the flame.
From a distance, their movements looked like a river of fire flowing up and down the mountain. At the top, small bonfires burned, while the sky was filled with the flashing colors of fireworks.
Iraqi Kurdish people celebrate the Nowruz New Year festival in the town of Akre,in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
Women wearing colorful dresses with gold and silver jewelry and men dressed in traditional outfits with wide belts and turbans danced in the streets of the town and in the hills, Kurdish flags waving above the crowds.
The sound of dahol drums and zurna flutes echoed everywhere, mixed with modern Kurdish folk songs played from loudspeakers.
According to Akre’s directorate of tourism, some 88,000 people attended the event, including Kurds who traveled from around the region and the world. The substantial turnout came despite the fact that this year the festival coincides with Ramadan, during which many Kurds — like other Muslims — fast from sunrise to sunset daily.
Among those dancing on the hill was Hozan Jalil, who traveled from Batman city in Turkiye. Jalil said he is happy about the peace process and hopeful that it will bear results, although he was also somewhat circumspect. “I hope it won’t finish with regrets and our Kurdish people will not be deceived or cheated,” he said.
Jalil said Nowruz to him represents unity between Kurdish people across national boundaries. “This year, Nowruz to me symbolizes the point of achieving freedom for all Kurdish people,” he said.
For the people of Akre, Nowruz has become a tradition that connects them to Kurds and others everywhere. A local from Akre, described her pride in hosting such a celebration in her town.
Iraqi Kurdish people celebrate the Nowruz New Year festival in the town of Akre,in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
“It’s a great feeling that everyone from all over the world comes to Akre for this celebration because it makes Akre the capital of Nowruz for the whole world,” said Guevara Fawaz. She was walking through the town’s main square with her family dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes.
Like Jalil, she voiced hopes that the PKK-Turkiye talks would progress and “achieve peace in all four parts of Kurdistan.”
A changing reality in Syria
Across the border in Syria, where former President Bashar Assad was unseated in a lightning rebel offensive in December, Nowruz celebrations took place openly in the streets of the capital for the first time in more than a decade since anti-government protests spiraled into a civil war in 2011.
Hundreds of Kurds packed into Shamdeen Square in the Roken Al-Din neighborhood, the main Kurdish area in the Syrian capital, to light the Nowruz fire, waving Kurdish flags alongside the new, three-starred Syrian flag.
In the village of Hemo, just outside the city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish flag, along with flags of Abdullah Ocalan and the SDF, waved high above the crowds as people danced in the streets.
Iraqi Kurdish people celebrate the Nowruz New Year festival in the town of Akre,in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
The new rulers in Damascus, Islamist former insurgents, have promised to respect minorities. A temporary constitution announced earlier this month states that “citizens are equal before the law ... without discrimination based on race, religion, gender or lineage.”
But many Kurds were unhappy that the text does not explicitly recognize Kurdish rights.
Mizgeen Tahir, a well-known Kurdish singer who attended the festivities in Hemo, said, “This year, Nowruz is different because it’s the first Nowruz since the fall of the Baath regime and authority,” referring to the now-disbanded Baath party of the Assad dynasty.
But Syria’s Kurdish region “is at a turning point now,” he said.
“This Nowruz, we’re unsure about our situation. How will our rights be constitutionally recognized?” Media Ghanim, from Qamishli, who also joined the celebrations, said she is hopeful that after Assad’s fall, “we will keep moving forward toward freedom and have our rights guaranteed in the Syrian constitution.”
“We hope these negotiations will end with success, because we want our rights as Kurds,” she said.
Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility
Updated 22 March 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Friday, one day after shooting down two projectiles launched by Houthi militants.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement in the early hours of Saturday.
Saree said the attack against Israel was the group’s third in 48 hours.
He issued a warning to airlines that the Israeli airport was “no longer safe for air travel and would continue to be so until the Israeli aggression against Gaza ends and the blockade is lifted.”
However, the airport’s website seemed to be operating normally and showed a list of scheduled flights.
The group’s military spokesman has also said without providing evidence that the Houthis had launched attacks against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.
The group recently vowed to escalate attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to US strikes
earlier this month, which amount to the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The US attacks have killed at least 50 people.
The Houthis’ fresh attacks come under a pledge to expand their range of targets in Israel in retaliation for renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds after weeks of relative calm.
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the US military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
The Houthis are part of what has been dubbed the “Axis of Resistance” — an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran.
Turkiye condemns ‘deliberate Israeli strike’ on Gaza hospital; Israel army insists it ‘struck terrorists’
Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January
Updated 22 March 2025
Agencies
ISTANBUL/JERUSALEM: Ankara on Friday condemned what it said was a “deliberate” attack by Israel on a Turkish-built hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“We strongly condemn the destruction by Israel of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,” said a foreign ministry statement.
Israel’s military acknowledged the attack, but insisted it “struck terrorists” in what it described as an inactive Gaza hospital used by Hamas militants.
“Earlier today (Friday), the IDF (military) struck terrorists in a Hamas terrorist infrastructure site that previously had served as a hospital in the central Gaza Strip,” a military spokesman told AFP in response to a question about the Turkish accusations.
Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January.
Israeli ground forces on Friday advanced deeper into Gaza and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.
In the southern city of Rafah, officials said Israeli bombardments had forced residents into the open, deepening their suffering. Officials said they halted the building of shelter camps to protect employees.
Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians. It says military operations will escalate until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.
Israel had ignored international condemnation of its indescriminate strikes, with Defense Minister Israel Katz warning that Israel would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity until the hostages are released by Hamas.”
