Egyptian Parliament Gives Sisi Mandate to Deploy Troops Abroad

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. (Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. (Reuters)
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Egyptian Parliament Gives Sisi Mandate to Deploy Troops Abroad

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. (Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. (Reuters)

Egypt's parliament on Monday approved the deployment of armed forces abroad to fight "criminal militias" and "foreign terrorist groups" on a "western front", after President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo could intervene in Libya.

Parliament said in a statement that the troops would be defending national security, without giving further details or naming Libya directly.

Sisi and US President Donald Trump agreed on Monday on the need to maintain a ceasefire in Libya and avoid an escalation between the forces fighting there, Egypt’s presidency said.

Sisi said last week Egypt would not stand idle in the face of threats to Egyptian and Libyan security.

"Egypt will spare no efforts to support the sister Libya ... to overcome the current critical crisis," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement after a meeting of the National Defense Council on Sunday that was chaired by Sisi.

Egypt is concerned about instability in Libya and Turkey’s support for the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, whose fighters have moved closer to the central city of Sirte in the hope of recapturing it from the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar.

Sisi last month declared the Sirte and Jufra frontlines a red line for Egypt.

Libya´s east-based parliament, the sole elected body in the country, also urged Sisi to send troops.

Sisi and Trump also discussed Ethiopia’s planned Blue Nile dam, the Egyptian presidency said. Cairo is worried that Ethiopia will start filling the dam without an agreement with Cairo and Sudan, which would also be affected.



Hamas Releases Video of Two Israeli Hostages Alive in Gaza

 A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Hamas Releases Video of Two Israeli Hostages Alive in Gaza

 A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows smoke billowing in the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Hamas's armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Israeli media identified the pair in the undated video as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana, who were kidnapped during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

The three-minute video released by Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades shows one of the hostages, identified by media as 36-year-old Bohbot, visibly weak and lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket.

Bohbot, a Colombian-Israeli, was seen bound and injured in the face in video footage from the day of the Hamas attack. After a video of him was released last month, his family said they were "extremely concerned" about his health.

The second hostage, said to be Ohana, 24, speaks in Hebrew in the video, urging the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives -- a similar message to statements made by other hostages, likely under duress, in previous videos released by Hamas.

Bohbot and Ohana, both abducted by Palestinian gunmen from the site of a music festival, are among 58 hostages held in Gaza since the 2023 attack, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the fate of three hostages presumed alive was unclear, without naming them.

"We know with certainty that 21 hostages are alive... and there are three others whose status, sadly, we do not know," Netanyahu said in a video shared on his Telegram channel.

Israel resumed its military offensive across the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce that saw the release of dozens of hostages.

Since the ceasefire collapsed, Hamas has released several videos of hostages, including of the two appearing in Saturday's video.

Israel says the renewed offensive aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger.

Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 2,701 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,810.