Sisi Orders Providing Coronavirus Vaccines Once Internationally Available

A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)
A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)
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Sisi Orders Providing Coronavirus Vaccines Once Internationally Available

A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)
A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered providing vaccines for the novel coronavirus once they are made available by international companies, said Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly on Thursday.

Head of Egypt’s Authority for Unified Procurement, Medical Supply and Technology Management Bahaa El-Din Zidan has recently sent a report to Madbouly on the efforts exerted by his authority to follow up on the latest developments worldwide on the coronavirus vaccines.

Zidan said the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) has presented the available vaccines, the manufacturers, and the different stages of their development, as well as the timetable for the process of manufacturing and exporting the vaccine to various countries.

The vaccines are to be manufactured in September and October and GAVI will adopt a plan for distributing them across the affected countries, he added.

Egypt has reiterated its share of the coronavirus vaccine from GAVI during a meeting held on Tuesday between representatives of the authority and officials from the global alliance, he affirmed.

The GAVI is an international body aimed at creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children.

Along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), GAVI co-leads the COVAX Facility, a financing mechanism designed to guarantee rapid and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.

It aims to deliver two billion doses of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.

Egypt has recorded 30,075 recoveries from COVID-19 since the pandemic’s outbreak.

The Ministry of Health and Population revealed on Thursday that “the index of recovery and discharge from quarantine centers continued to rise after earlier recording 33.5 percent.”

The relative stability in the rates of coronavirus infections in the country has increased the chances of overcoming the crisis.

The government has been gradually easing virus restrictions since June.



Israel Halts Aid, Official Says, as Gazan Clans Deny Hamas is Stealing It

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Halts Aid, Official Says, as Gazan Clans Deny Hamas is Stealing It

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP)

Israel has halted aid supplies to Gaza for two days to prevent them being seized by Hamas, an official said on Thursday after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks whom clan leaders said were protecting aid, not diverting it to the militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz, said late on Wednesday that he had ordered the military to present a plan within two days to prevent Hamas from taking control of aid.

The decision was made after Netanyahu and Katz cited new information indicating that Hamas was seizing aid intended for civilians in northern Gaza. The statement did not disclose the information but a video circulating on Wednesday showed dozens of masked men, some armed with rifles but most carrying sticks, riding on aid trucks

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that aid deliveries had been temporarily suspended for two days to allow the military time to develop a new plan.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli prime minister's office, the defense ministry or the Israeli military.

The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in the territory, said that trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process managed "solely through tribal efforts". The commission said that no Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had taken part in the process.

Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for more than two decades but now controls only parts of the territory after nearly two years of war with Israel, denied any involvement.

Throughout the war, numerous clans, civil society groups and factions - including Hamas' secular political rival Fatah - have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys.

Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazan society.

ACUTE SHORTAGE

Amjad al-Shawa, director of an umbrella body for Palestinian non-governmental organisations, said the aid protected by clans on Wednesday was being distributed to vulnerable families.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza's two million inhabitants.

Aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, frequently by desperate and starving Palestinians. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies.

"The clans came ... to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people," Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of Gazan clans, said, referring to Wednesday's operation.

The Wednesday video was shared on X by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who claimed that Hamas had taken control of aid allowed into Gaza by the Israeli government. Bennett is widely seen as the most viable challenger to Netanyahu at the next election.

Netanyahu has also faced pressure from within his right-wing coalition, with some hardline members threatening to quit over ceasefire negotiations and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza.

At least 103 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire over the past 24 hours, local health authorities said, including some shot near an aid distribution point, the latest in a series of such incidents. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Twenty hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, while Hamas is also holding the bodies of 30 who have died.