Scores of Casualties in Egypt Road Accidents 

A general view of El Fauquier (The Poor), a crash damaged vehicles and second-hand car shop, is pictured in Cairo, Egypt November 14, 2017. Reuters
A general view of El Fauquier (The Poor), a crash damaged vehicles and second-hand car shop, is pictured in Cairo, Egypt November 14, 2017. Reuters
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Scores of Casualties in Egypt Road Accidents 

A general view of El Fauquier (The Poor), a crash damaged vehicles and second-hand car shop, is pictured in Cairo, Egypt November 14, 2017. Reuters
A general view of El Fauquier (The Poor), a crash damaged vehicles and second-hand car shop, is pictured in Cairo, Egypt November 14, 2017. Reuters

Two accidents on Egypt's roads have killed at least 26 people in three days, authorities said.

A collision Saturday involving a minibus on a desert road 145 kilometers south of Cairo left 13 dead, the health ministry said.

The small bus crashed into a truck on the main road connecting the southern city of Beni Suef to Cairo, it said. All those killed were on the bus, which was carrying 17 people.

That came just days after a crash on the same road also claimed 13 lives.

Road accidents are common in Egypt due to badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws.

The country's official statistics agency says 14,700 road accidents took place in 2016, leaving more than 5,000 people dead.

But authorities have moved to strengthen enforcement of traffic laws.



Israel Says It Arrested 2,500 Palestinians in Gaza in 2024

Displaced Palestinians rush to take shelter during a storm at a makeshift camp in Gaza City on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians rush to take shelter during a storm at a makeshift camp in Gaza City on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
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Israel Says It Arrested 2,500 Palestinians in Gaza in 2024

Displaced Palestinians rush to take shelter during a storm at a makeshift camp in Gaza City on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians rush to take shelter during a storm at a makeshift camp in Gaza City on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)

Israel’s Shin Bet security service said it had arrested around 2,500 Palestinians in Gaza during 2024, of which 650 were interrogated.

The agency said, without providing evidence, that the interrogations enabled Israel to retrieve nine bodies of hostages who were kidnapped and taken to Gaza during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Additionally, 27 Israelis were indicted for spying for Iran, a nearly four-fold increase from 2023, it said. The Shin Bet released the figures in their year-end review of operations during the calendar year.

In the occupied West Bank, 3,682 Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of involvement in “terror activities,” the Shin Bet said.

Last year, Israel arrested more than 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank between October to December, according to the UN.

The UN Human Rights Office issued a report this summer saying Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since the Oct. 7 attacks faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, dogs set on them and other forms of torture and mistreatment. Israel’s prison authorities previously said that all Palestinian prisoners are treated according to Israeli and international law.