Non-Egyptian National Involved in ‘Oasis’ Attack

People carry the coffin of Egyptian police officer Ahmed Fayez, who was attacked with other security forces by militants in Egypt's western desert, in El Hosary Mosque outside Cairo, Egypt, on October 21 (Reuters photo)
People carry the coffin of Egyptian police officer Ahmed Fayez, who was attacked with other security forces by militants in Egypt's western desert, in El Hosary Mosque outside Cairo, Egypt, on October 21 (Reuters photo)
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Non-Egyptian National Involved in ‘Oasis’ Attack

People carry the coffin of Egyptian police officer Ahmed Fayez, who was attacked with other security forces by militants in Egypt's western desert, in El Hosary Mosque outside Cairo, Egypt, on October 21 (Reuters photo)
People carry the coffin of Egyptian police officer Ahmed Fayez, who was attacked with other security forces by militants in Egypt's western desert, in El Hosary Mosque outside Cairo, Egypt, on October 21 (Reuters photo)

Egypt revealed details concerning the horrifying terror ambush in the Western Sahara which killed a number of police officers last October. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said that all members affiliated with the responsible terror cell have been killed save for a single assailant.

According to Sisi, the attacker was a non-Egyptian national without disclosing further information.

Sisi said that the media would be handed further information on the face behind the 14th terrorist taken in alive.

More so, the President said that the intensifying attacks targeting the oasis zone had pushed for more stringent security measures to fail and surging of new terror cells.

In the same vein, security experts and strategists said that “Egypt provides its western borders around-the-clock air support, ground border guards and satellites”.

Consequently, terrorists suffered great losses.

Strategists added that “the large number of weapons seized from terrorists during recently suggests large funding.”

The interior ministry said security forces hunting down terrorists in the region were attacked on a road to the Bahariya oasis in the country's Western Desert, some 200 kilometers southwest of Cairo.

An official statement said a number of the attackers were killed, but did not give any figures for losses on either side.

A deadly attack on the police in Egypt's Western Desert was claimed by a new militant group risks opening up another front for security forces far beyond the remote northern Sinai, where they have battled a stubborn ISIS terror group since 2014.

A little-known group called Ansar Al Islam claimed responsibility for the October 21 attack. Analysts and security sources said the heavy weapons and tactics employed indicated ties to ISIS or more likely a Qaeda brigade led by Hesham Al Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer turned extremist.

Authorities have been fighting the Egyptian branch of the ISIS group, which has increased its attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula more than 500 kilometers away from the latest violence.
In response to the latest bloodshed Egyptian security forces appeared to step up their operations in the area of the attack.

The Muslim Brotherhood remains to be the other ultra-hardline group threatening Egyptian security next to ISIS.



Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since Monday night, Palestinian media and medics said on Tuesday, as the Israeli army tightened its siege on northern areas of the enclave.

An airstrike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since Oct. 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.

The Gaza health ministry did not immediately confirm the toll. Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.

Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.

The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had "eliminated terrorists" in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where "terrorist infrastructure sites" had been eliminated, it said.

Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for people to evacuate were aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones.

Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza say, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.

The war began after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.