Egypt Exerts Efforts to Alleviate the Suffering of Palestinians

Recreational activities for Gaza children inside a Khan Yunis camp. (Egyptian Red Crescent)
Recreational activities for Gaza children inside a Khan Yunis camp. (Egyptian Red Crescent)
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Egypt Exerts Efforts to Alleviate the Suffering of Palestinians

Recreational activities for Gaza children inside a Khan Yunis camp. (Egyptian Red Crescent)
Recreational activities for Gaza children inside a Khan Yunis camp. (Egyptian Red Crescent)

The Egyptian air force carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, while Cairo has finished the preparation of a second refugee camp in Gaza.

The airdrop was conducted in cooperation with Jordan and the UAE, said state-run Al-Qahera News, citing high-level sources.

“Some 45 tons of Egyptian humanitarian aid were dropped in the northern and central Gaza Strip,” it said.

Egypt "intensifies its efforts by land and air to relieve the stricken areas in the northern Gaza Strip and supply them with urgent aid,” said Al-Qahera News.

It said Egypt plans to airdrop 50 tons of urgent humanitarian aid in the northern and central Gaza Strip.

Egypt is setting up a third refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and preparing a field hospital for Palestinians displaced by Israeli attacks, Al-Qahera News reported.

The camp will be in northern Deir el-Balah province in central Gaza, the Egyptian TV channel said, citing a security source. It said Egypt had already finished its second camp in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The Egyptian Red Crescent, in cooperation with the Palestinian Red Crescent, set up the first camp for the displaced in Khan Yunis.

More than 2,200 Palestinians wounded in the Gaza Strip have crossed into Egypt through the Rafah border since Nov. 1, 2023, the Egyptian Ministry of Health said. The statement said 47 hospitals in eight Egyptian provinces treated the wounded and performed more than 1,300 surgeries.

Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service, denied media reports alleging that Egypt is building camps on the Egyptian side of the border in Sinai to accommodate displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

Rashwan reiterated Egypt’s rejection of any “forced or voluntary” displacement of Palestinians outside their lands, especially to Egypt. Any such displacement would result in the “certain liquidation of the Palestinian issue, and [would be] a direct threat to Egyptian sovereignty and national security,” he added.



Druze Religious Elders from Syria Make Visit to Israel

 Druze people welcome buses carrying Druze delegation from Syria, as it crosses the ceasefire line between Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria and enters Israel on the day of the first visit by a Druze delegation from Syria just after the 1973 war in Israel, in Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Druze people welcome buses carrying Druze delegation from Syria, as it crosses the ceasefire line between Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria and enters Israel on the day of the first visit by a Druze delegation from Syria just after the 1973 war in Israel, in Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Druze Religious Elders from Syria Make Visit to Israel

 Druze people welcome buses carrying Druze delegation from Syria, as it crosses the ceasefire line between Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria and enters Israel on the day of the first visit by a Druze delegation from Syria just after the 1973 war in Israel, in Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Druze people welcome buses carrying Druze delegation from Syria, as it crosses the ceasefire line between Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria and enters Israel on the day of the first visit by a Druze delegation from Syria just after the 1973 war in Israel, in Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)

A delegation of Druze religious elders from Syria crossed into Israel on Friday for the first such visit in more than 50 years, underscoring Israel's backing for the community amid growing tensions with the new government in Damascus.

Around 100 Druze sheikhs from villages on the slope of Mount Hermon in Syria, overlooked by the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, are due to visit shrines including sites held to be the tomb of prophet Shuayb, west of Tiberias, in the Lower Galilee.

After entering the Golan Heights, cheered by Druze in traditional black clothes and white and red head dress, some waving the white, blue, yellow, red and green flag of the Druze, they travelled by bus to the town of Julis in Israel to meet Mowafaq Tarif, spiritual leader of the group in Israel.

"Feeling proud and honored to visit here. We are one family and brothers," said Nazeh Rakab, from Hadar in Syria, as he watched the welcome ceremony in Julis, where hundreds gathered to greet the delegation waving Druze flags, with some firing into the air from the rooftops in celebration.

The Druze, an Arab minority who practice a religion originally derived from Islam, live in an area straddling Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Golan Heights, connected across the borders by a web of kinship ties.

In Israel, many serve in the military and police, including during the war in Gaza, and some have reached high rank.

Condemnation

The visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, according to a source close to the delegation, but has been met with opposition from other Druze in Syria.

The minority accounts for about three percent of Syria's population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.

Other residents of Hadar condemned the trip, saying in a statement that the clerics "represent only themselves".

They accused Israel of "exploiting this religious visit as a tool to sow division" and of "seeking to use the Druze community as a defensive line to achieve its expansionist interests in southern Syria".

Friday's visit is intended to be a purely religious occasion but its political significance was underscored by Israeli airstrikes on what Israel described as command centers of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement in Damascus a day earlier.

Israeli ministers have expressed deep misgivings about the new government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, describing his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement as an extremist group. The group was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda but later renounced the connection.

On Thursday, Israel, which has been urging support for the Druze following the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December, sent truckloads of aid including oil, flour, salt and sugar, most to the Sweida.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Syrian Druze would be allowed to enter and work in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war, and Israel has also said it would protect Druze in Syria if needed.

In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria's new rulers "to harm the Druze".

Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz's warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.