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Cairo Urges Tel Aviv to Withdraw from Five Strategic Points inside Lebanon

This handout picture taken by RIA Novosti on June 17, 2023 shows Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly arriving at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg to attend the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. (Handout / RIA Novosti via AFP)
This handout picture taken by RIA Novosti on June 17, 2023 shows Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly arriving at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg to attend the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. (Handout / RIA Novosti via AFP)
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Cairo Urges Tel Aviv to Withdraw from Five Strategic Points inside Lebanon

This handout picture taken by RIA Novosti on June 17, 2023 shows Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly arriving at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg to attend the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. (Handout / RIA Novosti via AFP)
This handout picture taken by RIA Novosti on June 17, 2023 shows Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly arriving at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg to attend the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. (Handout / RIA Novosti via AFP)

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly urged Israel to withdraw from five strategic points it still occupies inside Lebanon.

“We are following up on the security developments and categorically reject any Israeli presence on Lebanese territories”, Madbouly stressed in remarks during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Sunday from Cairo.

He added that Egyptian companies are willing to take part in the reconstruction process in south Lebanon, noting “We support the Lebanese government to safeguard the stability and unity of Lebanese territories”.

Pointing to a stimulus in bilateral relations between the two countries, he said an agreement was reached to convene the tenth Lebanese-Egyptian committee, noting that he is scheduled to lead a delegation to visit Lebanon in December.

Expressing unwavering support for Lebanon, the Egyptian PM said: “We back the political and diplomatic efforts aiming to achieve political and economic stability in the country.

“We are fully ready to meet any requests from the Lebanese side in what serves the country’s independence and its progress in the coming phase. We are following up on the security developments and categorically reject any Israeli presence on Lebanese territories. We support your endeavors to take the necessary steps to stabilize the situation in Lebanon.”

At the energy level, Madbouly said that Egypt plans to increase cooperation with Lebanon.

Trade Exchange between Cairo and Beirut

Trade exchange reached a billion dollars last year, said Madbouly noting that any effort to multiply this amount will not come to fruition without the participation of the private sector.

During his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Salam hailed the “firm” bilateral relations between the two countries and praised the Grand Egyptian Museum – which Egypt inaugurated on Saturday- describing it as “a piece of art”.

Salam invited Madbouly to an investment conference that Lebanon plans to hold, urging him to encourage the Egyptian private sector to attend.

The Lebanese PM said that Lebanon is looking forward to Egypt’s assistance, expressing confidence in its ability to provide political backing to Lebanon.

Replying to Salam’s remarks, Madbouly said: “We fully understand what Lebanon is facing in the south, and we support the imposition of Lebanon’s sovereignty over all Lebanese territories. As soon as the situation stabilizes in southern Lebanon, Egyptian companies will be ready to provide support in the field of infrastructure”.

 

 

 

 

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Arab World

Israel Identifies Latest Returned Body as Israeli-Argentinian Hostage

This undated photo provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shows Israeli hostage Lior Rudaeff, whose body was returned to Israel after being held in Gaza by Palestinian militants. (Hostage's Family Forum via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shows Israeli hostage Lior Rudaeff, whose body was returned to Israel after being held in Gaza by Palestinian militants. (Hostage's Family Forum via AP)
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Israel Identifies Latest Returned Body as Israeli-Argentinian Hostage

This undated photo provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shows Israeli hostage Lior Rudaeff, whose body was returned to Israel after being held in Gaza by Palestinian militants. (Hostage's Family Forum via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shows Israeli hostage Lior Rudaeff, whose body was returned to Israel after being held in Gaza by Palestinian militants. (Hostage's Family Forum via AP)

Israel has identified the latest body returned from Gaza by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as Israeli-Argentinian hostage Lior Rudaeff, the Israeli army said Saturday.

"Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine... IDF (military) representatives informed the family of Lior Rudaeff that he had been returned for burial," the military said in a statement.

Rudaeff, 61, was killed in Nir Yitzhak kibbutz while trying to protect his community with four other residents on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and his body was taken to the Palestinian territory that day.

Under the October ceasefire deal Hamas turned over all 20 living hostages still held in Gaza since the group's 2023 attack on Israel, in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees held in Israel.

The ceasefire agreement also included the return of remains of 28 deceased hostages in exchange for remains of 360 militants.

Including Rudaeff, 23 hostage bodies have been returned in exchange for 285 bodies of Palestinians, though not all have been identified, according to Gaza's health authorities.

Arab World

Lebanon Reaffirms Negotiations as Path to Resolve Dispute with Israel

President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)
President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)
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Lebanon Reaffirms Negotiations as Path to Resolve Dispute with Israel

President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)
President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)

Senior Lebanese officials reaffirmed their commitment to negotiations with Israel through the international committee tasked with overseeing the November 2024 ceasefire agreement, known as the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, following Hezbollah’s statement on Thursday in which the group told them it rejects any form of political negotiation.

Communication between Lebanon and Israel is limited to a United Nations-backed monitoring mechanism involving France and the US. The two sides meet separately under UN auspices but do not engage in direct talks.

Berri: No to normalization

While President Joseph Aoun underscored Lebanon’s adherence to this mechanism, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said there is no alternative to it. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam responded to Hezbollah by saying that decisions of war and peace rest solely with the state.

Berri told Asharq Al Awsat that normalization with Israel is out of the question.

“Anyone calling for normalization should know it is impossible,” he said.

“I remain firm in my position on the mechanism, which brings together all parties, Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France and the United Nations. There is no objection to bringing in civilian specialists when needed, as happened during the demarcation of the Blue Line in 2000, when geological and mapping experts were involved.”

Berri added that Israel’s threats and airstrikes will not alter Lebanon’s stance.

On the electoral law, Berri said he has not yet received the draft. Once it reaches him, he will decide his position. The government had approved a draft law scrapping the six seats allocated to expatriates and allowing overseas voters to cast ballots in their place of residence, according to their electoral registration. Berri and Hezbollah oppose the changes.

Berri has insisted on implementing the current parliamentary election law, saying it remains technically and legally viable. He also questioned why some political actors are backtracking on previous positions “for maneuvers we all know are futile.” He said: “This law was once described by George Adwan (Lebanese Forces deputy leader) as his own. So what was valid in past elections is suddenly not valid today?”

Aoun: We are committed to the November agreement

The President reaffirmed “Lebanon’s commitment to the cessation of hostilities agreement reached in November 2024 under US and French sponsorship.”

Speaking during a meeting with a World Bank delegation, he said Israel had not complied.

“According to this deal, Israel was supposed to withdraw completely and fully from the South sixty days after the agreement, but it still occupies five hills and is escalating its attacks on Lebanon amidst increasing daily threats against the country and its people,” said Aoun.

Salam: Decisions of war and peace rest with the government

The Prime Minister said Lebanon is moving steadily toward reclaiming its natural role within the Arab region.

He voiced satisfaction at “Lebanon’s return to the Arabs and the Arabs’ return to Lebanon,” saying this renewed relationship forms “a foundation for national recovery in technology, the economy and security.”

Speaking at an event dedicated to technology and artificial intelligence, Salam recalled that the government has made a “clear decision” regarding the state’s monopoly over arms, stressing that the Lebanese Army’s plan to achieve this “is progressing according to well-defined stages.”

This plan is still in its first phase, Salam noted, alluding to the disarmament of Hezbollah south of the Litani River.

Responding to Hezbollah’s statement, Salam said that decisions of war and peace lie exclusively with the Lebanese government, which alone is responsible for protecting sovereignty and maintaining stability.

He described Israeli escalation as dangerous and a threat to regional security, saying the government is seeking Arab and international support to stop Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory and strengthen the state’s ability to assert full authority across its land.

On Lebanese-Syrian relations, Salam said the era of interference in Syria’s affairs has ended. Lebanon is committed to a policy of self-distancing and to mutual respect with all Arab states, he reaffirmed.

Arab World

Satellite Images Appear to Show Attempts to Dispose of Bodies After RSF Seized Sudan’s el-Fasher

This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)
This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)
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Satellite Images Appear to Show Attempts to Dispose of Bodies After RSF Seized Sudan’s el-Fasher

This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)
This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)

New satellite images analyzed Friday appear to show further efforts by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to dispose of corpses after they seized and rampaged through the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Images by the Colorado-based firm Vantor show a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher on Thursday near a collection of white objects seen days earlier in other Vantor photos.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab described the images as showing the “burning of objects that may be consistent with bodies.”

“The practice of burning bodies is not consistent with Islamic burial practices,” the Yale lab said in its report. “The apparent immolation of objects that may be consistent with human remains complicates any future effort to count the number of people killed since the fall of el-Fasher and to identify and return the remains to family members.”

The Associated Press separately accessed the Vantor images and identified objects corresponding to the Yale lab’s report, including the fire and the white objects. Such objects in other imagery from el-Fasher appear to correspond to dead bodies, showing the scale of the killings in the city.

Earlier satellite images of el-Fasher appear to show mass graves being dug and later covered at two sites in the city, one at a mosque just north of the Saudi hospital where some 460 people reportedly had been killed and another by a former children’s hospital that the RSF had been using as a prison.

The RSF has denied killing anyone at the Saudi hospital.

However, testimonies from those fleeing el-Fasher, online videos and satellite images offer an apocalyptic vision of the attack.

Another satellite image appeared to show the RSF likely blocking an exit to el-Fasher to the west. A new berm had been added to the site, the Yale lab said.

Drones reportedly intercepted

Meanwhile, the Sudanese army intercepted drones fired overnight by its rival paramilitary group on two cities in Sudan's northeast, a military official said Friday.

The army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the matter, said 15 drones targeted Atbara, a city north of the capital, in River Nile province. He confirmed that strikes caused no casualties. Local media reports said residents heard explosions.

The official added that ground defenses intercepted a smaller-scale drone attack that also targeted Omdruman, the sister city of the capital Khartoum.

The RSF drone strikes come a day after the group announced that it has agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by a US-led mediator group known as the Quad.

A Sudanese military official told the AP on Thursday that the army welcomes the Quad’s proposal but will only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and give up weapons per previous peace proposals.

US-led plan for a truce

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.

The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the WHO, and displaced 12 million. However, aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher. Over 24 million people are also facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.

The US-led plan for a truce would start with a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a nine-month political process, said Massad Boulos, a US adviser for African affairs, earlier this week.

Also Friday, the UN’s top human rights body announced it will hold an emergency special session on Sudan on Nov. 14 over recent bloodshed and other violence against civilians in and around the Darfur city of el-Fasher.

The call for the special session by the Human Rights Council in Geneva was led by Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway, and has drawn support from two dozen council members in the 47-member-country rights body so far.

Limited aid delivery The RSF’s announcement that it agreed to the truce comes more than a week after the group seized el-Fasher which had been under siege for over 18 months. It was also the last Sudanese military stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

UNICEF said Thursday that more than 81,000 people have been displaced from el-Fasher since Oct. 26, with rising needs for shelter, food, water and medical care but limited aid delivery.

The UN children agency's report said it identified more than 850 children with acute malnutrition who are now receiving treatment. It added that violence, sexual assaults and looting of health facilities remain rampant across North Darfur, with women and children being the most vulnerable.