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Arab World

Egyptians Vote in Second Day of Parliamentary Elections

A man prepares to cast ballot on the first day of the parliamentary election inside a polling station in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
A man prepares to cast ballot on the first day of the parliamentary election inside a polling station in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
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Egyptians Vote in Second Day of Parliamentary Elections

A man prepares to cast ballot on the first day of the parliamentary election inside a polling station in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
A man prepares to cast ballot on the first day of the parliamentary election inside a polling station in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Egyptians on Sunday trickled into polling stations on the second day of voting for the country’s parliamentary election amid a slight uptick in daily recorded coronavirus cases.

The first stage of the vote for the lower chamber of parliament began a day earlier in 14 of Egypt’s 27 provinces, including Giza and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

The second stage the vote is scheduled on Nov. 7-8 in the country’s 13 other provinces, including the capital Cairo and the Sinai Peninsula. The voting concludes with runoff elections.

A total of 568 seats in the lower chamber are up for grabs, with more than 4,000 candidates running as individuals competing for half of the seats.

The other half of elected seats in the chamber are reserved for the more than 1,100 candidates running on four party lists.

The country's president will name 28 seats, or 5%, bringing the total number of seats in the lower chamber to 596.

Some 63 million voters are eligible to vote in the Arab world's most population nation, The Associated Press reported.

The new chamber is expected to hold its inaugural session shortly after final results are announced in December.

The election is taking place as Egypt faces a slight increase in coronavirus cases, with authorities warning that a second wave of the pandemic lies ahead.

Face masks are mandatory at polling centers, which were disinfected before and during the vote, authorities said.

Authorities urged Egyptians to take part in the vote in order to show a high turnout and lend legitimacy to the election.

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Arab World

Prominent Gaza Doctor Dies in Israeli Prison

A man tapes off the area as rescuers and medics search for dead bodies inside the damaged Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City April 8, 2024. (Reuters)
A man tapes off the area as rescuers and medics search for dead bodies inside the damaged Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City April 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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Prominent Gaza Doctor Dies in Israeli Prison

A man tapes off the area as rescuers and medics search for dead bodies inside the damaged Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City April 8, 2024. (Reuters)
A man tapes off the area as rescuers and medics search for dead bodies inside the damaged Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City April 8, 2024. (Reuters)

A senior Palestinian doctor died in an Israeli prison after more than four months of detention, two Palestinian prisoner associations said on Thursday, blaming Israel for his death.

The associations said in a joint statement that Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical facility, had been detained by Israeli forces while temporarily working at Al-Awada Hospital in north Gaza.

They called his death an "assassination" and said his body remained in Israeli custody.

An Israeli military spokesperson said that the prison service had declared Bursh dead on April 19, saying that he had been detained for national security reasons in Ofer prison. The spokesperson did not comment on the cause of death.

Medical groups, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly called for a halt to attacks on Gaza healthcare workers, with more than 200 killed so far in the Gaza conflict, according to an estimate from Insecurity Insight, a research group that collects and analyses data on attacks on aid workers around the world.

The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Bursh’s death raised to 496 the number of medical sector workers who had been killed by Israel since Oct 7. It added that 1,500 others had been wounded while 309 had been arrested.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and says its operations against them have been justified by the presence of fighters. Hamas and medical staff deny the allegations.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli authorities released 64 Palestinians they had detained during their military offensive in Gaza via the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the Palestinian borders and crossings agency said.

One of them was the body of another man who had died in detention, the prisoners' associations said.

Another freed detainee arrived in critical condition and was moved into hospital upon arrival, the crossings agency added.

Dozens of Palestinians who had been freed by Israel in past months including some staff of a UN agency have reported ill-treatment during detention, including torture and deprivation of food and sleep.

The two new deaths bring the toll of Gazans who died in Israeli custody to at least 18 since the start of the war, the prisoners associations said, urging Israeli authorities to disclose the number, location and fate of detainees from Gaza.

The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency has documented the release of 1,506 people detained by the Israeli authorities through the Kerem Shalom crossing as of April 4 and said the transfer of detainees regularly holds up aid. The 1,506 included 43 children and 84 women, it said.

Israel's military operation in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, which by its tallies killed 1,200 with 253 taken hostage. The subsequent Israeli bombardment has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian medics, and displaced the majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people.

Arab World

Hamas Will Send a Delegation to Cairo to Keep Up Ceasefire Talks

A picture shows a view of a devastated neighborhood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of a devastated neighborhood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Hamas Will Send a Delegation to Cairo to Keep Up Ceasefire Talks

A picture shows a view of a devastated neighborhood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of a devastated neighborhood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (AFP)

Hamas said Thursday it will send a delegation to Cairo as soon as possible to keep working on ceasefire talks, in response to Egypt's latest proposal.

In a statement, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he spoke Egypt’s intelligence chief and “stressed the positive spirit of the movement in studying the ceasefire proposal.”

The statement did not say when the delegation would travel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was back in the Middle East this week in a renewed push for a ceasefire deal. The proposed truce would free hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a halt to the fighting and the delivery of much needed food, medicine and water into Gaza. Palestinian prisoners are also expected to be released as part of the deal.

If the Israel-Hamas war stopped today, it would still take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes that have been destroyed in nearly seven months of Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in the besieged territory, according to United Nations estimates released Thursday.

The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine. The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and the territory's entire population has been driven into a humanitarian catastrophe.

The war started on Oct. 7 when Palestinian fighters launched an unprecedented attack into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting around 250 hostages. Israel says fighters still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Arab World

EU Announces 1 Billion Euros in Aid for Lebanon amid a Surge in Irregular Migration

In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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EU Announces 1 Billion Euros in Aid for Lebanon amid a Surge in Irregular Migration

In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
In this Monday, April 23, 2018 photo, Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The European Union announced on Thursday an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — that will mostly go to strengthening border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.
The deal follows other recent deals by the EU to provide funds to countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Mauritania to fortify their borders. It comes against a backdrop of increasing hostility toward Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a major surge in irregular migration of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Cyprus.
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the aid, which will be distributed between this year and 2027, during a visit to Beirut alongside Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
Von der Leyen said the EU will also be “exploring how to work on a more structured approach to voluntary return to Syria in close cooperation with” the UN refugee agency, or UNHCR, and called for more international support for humanitarian and early recovery projects in Syria.
Europe will also continue to maintain “legal pathways” for resettlement of refugees in Europe, she said.
Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati praised the aid package, saying that "Lebanon’s security is security for European countries and vice versa.”
“Any blowup related to the issue of displaced persons will not be limited to Lebanon but will extend to Europe to become a regional and international crisis,” he said.
Lebanon, which has been in the throes of a severe financial crisis since 2019, hosts nearly 785,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands more who are unregistered, the highest population of refugees per capita in the world.
Lebanese political officials have been calling for years for the international community to either resettle the refugees in other countries or assist in returning them to Syria — voluntarily or not. Lebanese security forces have stepped up deportations of Syrians over the past year.
Tensions around the presence of refugees have further flared since an official with the Christian nationalist Lebanese Forces party, Pascal Suleiman, was killed last month in what military officials said was a botched carjacking by a Syrian gang. The incident prompted outbreaks of anti-Syrian violence by vigilante groups.
Meanwhile, Cypriot authorities have been complaining that their country has been overwhelmed by a wave of irregular migration of Syrian asylum seekers, many of them coming on boats from Lebanon.
The Lebanon office of the UNHCR said it had verified 59 “actual or attempted” departures by boats carrying a total of 3,191 passengers from Lebanon between January and mid-April, compared to three documented boat movements carrying 54 passengers in the same period last year.
Usually, few boats attempt the crossing in the winter, when the passage becomes more dangerous. In total, UNHCR recorded 65 boat departures carrying 3,927 passengers in all of 2023.
Cyprus has taken increasingly aggressive tactics to halt the flow of migrants. Last month, it suspended processing of Syrian asylum applications, and human rights groups accused the Cypriot coast guard of forcibly pushing back five boats carrying about 500 asylum seekers coming from Lebanon.
Christodoulides hailed Thursday's visit as a “historic day” and praised the EU decision, calling for European officials to go farther and declare some areas of Syria safe for return.
“The current situation is not sustainable for Lebanon. It is not sustainable for Cyprus, it is not sustainable for the European Union,” he said.
The new funding announcement comes ahead of the annual fundraising conference for the Syrian crisis in Brussels later this month. After 13 years of civil war in Syria, donor fatigue has set in while the world’s attention is occupied by the humanitarian fallout of more recent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Arab World

Palestinian Security Force Kills Gunman in West Bank 

Palestinian security forces and gunmen have exchanged gunfire several times in the last year, but deaths are rare. (Reuters file photo)
Palestinian security forces and gunmen have exchanged gunfire several times in the last year, but deaths are rare. (Reuters file photo)
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Palestinian Security Force Kills Gunman in West Bank 

Palestinian security forces and gunmen have exchanged gunfire several times in the last year, but deaths are rare. (Reuters file photo)
Palestinian security forces and gunmen have exchanged gunfire several times in the last year, but deaths are rare. (Reuters file photo)

Palestinian security officers killed a gunman in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, a rare intra-Palestinian clash whose circumstances were disputed and which the fighter's faction described as an Israeli-style "assassination".

Palestinian Authority security services spokesperson Talak Dweikat said a force sent to patrol Tulkarm overnight came under fire and shot back, hitting the gunman. He died from his wounds in hospital.

Videos circulated online, and which Reuters was not immediately able to confirm, showed a car being hit by gunfire.

A local armed group, the Tulkarm and Nour Shams Camp Brigades, claimed the dead man, Ahmed Abu al-Foul, as its member with affiliation to the militant group Islamic Jihad.

Al-Foul was "treacherously ... targeted in his car" without provocation, the brigades said in a statement. "This crime is just like any assassination by Israeli special forces."

President Mahmoud Abbas' PA wields limited self-rule in the West Bank, and sometimes coordinates security with Israel.

Parts of the territory have drifted into chaos and poverty, with the PA and Israel trading blame, especially since ties have been further strained by Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Hamas, an Islamic Jihad ally which rules the Gaza Strip and has chafed at Abbas' strategy of seeking diplomatic accommodation with Israel, denounced "the attacks by the PA’s security forces on our people and our resistance fighters".

Palestinian security forces and gunmen have exchanged gunfire several times in the last year, but deaths are rare.

Arab World

UN Report: It Would Take Until 2040 to Repair all Homes Destroyed so Far in Gaza

FILED - 31 December 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinian children receive food prepared in a charity kitchen. Photo: Mohammed Talatene/dpa
FILED - 31 December 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinian children receive food prepared in a charity kitchen. Photo: Mohammed Talatene/dpa
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UN Report: It Would Take Until 2040 to Repair all Homes Destroyed so Far in Gaza

FILED - 31 December 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinian children receive food prepared in a charity kitchen. Photo: Mohammed Talatene/dpa
FILED - 31 December 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: Palestinian children receive food prepared in a charity kitchen. Photo: Mohammed Talatene/dpa

If the Israel-Hamas war stopped today, it would still take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes that have been destroyed in nearly seven months of Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in the territory, according to United Nations estimates released Thursday.
The United States has pressured Israel to increase aid deliveries during the war, and on Wednesday, Israel reopened a border crossing with hard-hit northern Gaza Strip for the first time since it was damaged at the start of the war.
Meanwhile, on his seventh visit since the latest war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed for a cease-fire deal. The proposed truce would free hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a halt to the fighting and the delivery of much needed food, medicine and water into Gaza. Palestinian prisoners are also expected to be released as part of the deal.
On Oct. 7, the Palestinian Hamas group launched an unprecedented attack into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting around 250 hostages. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The death toll in Gaza is more than 34,500 Palestinians, according to local health officials, as the territory faces a humanitarian catastrophe. The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.

Arab World

EU to Unveil Economic Aid for Lebanon to Stop Refugee Flows

Syrian refugees prepare to leave Lebanon toward Syrian territory through the Wadi Hamid crossing in Arsal on Oct. 26, 2022. (Getty Images/AFP)
Syrian refugees prepare to leave Lebanon toward Syrian territory through the Wadi Hamid crossing in Arsal on Oct. 26, 2022. (Getty Images/AFP)
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EU to Unveil Economic Aid for Lebanon to Stop Refugee Flows

Syrian refugees prepare to leave Lebanon toward Syrian territory through the Wadi Hamid crossing in Arsal on Oct. 26, 2022. (Getty Images/AFP)
Syrian refugees prepare to leave Lebanon toward Syrian territory through the Wadi Hamid crossing in Arsal on Oct. 26, 2022. (Getty Images/AFP)

The European Union will reportedly offer economic aid for Lebanon close to one billion euros to stop the flow of Syrian refugees, dpa news agency said on Thursday.
The economic package will be used to bolster health, educational and social services in Lebanon, according to EU officials.
Special funds will also be allocated to provide assistance to the security forces and Lebanon’s army to help them combat human smuggling, and to implement economic and financial reforms.
The European Union will offer the aid when the head of the bloc’s executive and the Cypriot president jointly visit Beirut on Thursday, a Cypriot official said on Tuesday.
EU member Cyprus has grown increasingly concerned at a sharp increase in the number of Syrian refugees making their way to the Mediterranean island. Lebanon, a mere 100 miles (185 km) away from Cyprus, hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
“The President of the European Commission will present an economic aid package for Lebanon,” Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a statement.
President Ursula von der Leyen, due in Cyprus on Wednesday, would jointly travel to Beirut with the Cypriot President, Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday morning.
Discussions would focus on challenges Lebanon presently faces and stability reforms it needs, Letymbiotis said.
“The implementation of this (package) was at the initiative of President Christodoulides and the Republic of Cyprus and is practical proof of the active role the EU can play in our region,” Letymbiotis said.
Lebanon, in the throes of an economic meltdown since 2019, has not enacted most of the reforms required by the International Monetary Fund to get access to its funding, but has asked friendly countries to continue backing it.
Some Lebanese officials have used the growing presence of migrants and refugees in the country as a bargaining chip, threatening to stop intercepting migrant boats destined for Europe unless Lebanon received more economic support.
Cyprus took in more than 2,000 Syrians who arrived by sea in the first quarter of this year, compared to just 78 in the same period of last year. Earlier this month, it took the unprecedented step of dispatching patrol vessels to international waters off Lebanon to discourage crossings and said it was suspending the processing of asylum applications from Syrians.

Arab World

Syrians Accuse Russia of Hitting Hospital in New Complaint Filed with UN Rights Committee

A Syrian man walks across an empty street at Shehel after the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) imposed their control over the town, in Deir ez-Zor province, eastern Syria, 09 September 2023. EPA/AHMED MARDNLI
A Syrian man walks across an empty street at Shehel after the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) imposed their control over the town, in Deir ez-Zor province, eastern Syria, 09 September 2023. EPA/AHMED MARDNLI
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Syrians Accuse Russia of Hitting Hospital in New Complaint Filed with UN Rights Committee

A Syrian man walks across an empty street at Shehel after the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) imposed their control over the town, in Deir ez-Zor province, eastern Syria, 09 September 2023. EPA/AHMED MARDNLI
A Syrian man walks across an empty street at Shehel after the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) imposed their control over the town, in Deir ez-Zor province, eastern Syria, 09 September 2023. EPA/AHMED MARDNLI

A Syrian man and an aid organization have accused Russia of violating international law by deliberately bombing a hospital in northern Syria in 2019, in a new complaint filed at the United Nations Human Rights Committee this week.
Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria's conflict in 2015 to bolster the forces of its ally President Bashar al-Assad, has been accused by UN investigators of committing war crimes in Syria, but has not faced any international tribunal.
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that it violated international law in Syria, Reuters reported.
The new complaint, filed on May 1 but made public on Thursday, accuses Russia's Air Force of killing two civilians in a series of air strikes on the Kafr Nobol Surgical Hospital in the northwest province of Idlib on May 5, 2019.
It was brought to the committee by the cousin of those killed and by Hand in Hand for Aid and Development, an aid group that was supporting the hospital, which was in territory held by armed groups opposed to Assad.
The complaint relies on videos, eyewitness statements and audio recordings, including correspondence between a Russian pilot and ground control about dropping munitions.
"Syrians are looking to the Human Rights Committee to show us some measure of redress by acknowledging the truth of this brutal attack, and the suffering caused," said Fadi al-Dairi, the director of Hand in Hand.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Committee is a body of independent experts that monitors the status of political and civil rights around the world, and can receive complaints by states and individuals on alleged violations.
Individual complaints can lead to compensation payments, investigations or other measures.
While rights groups have accused both Syria and Russia of violating international law within Syria for years, neither country is party to the International Criminal Court's Rome Statute, and opportunities for accountability are rare.
Russia signed onto the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1991, meaning it accepts the Human Rights Committee's ability to consider complaints from individuals against it.
"This complaint before a preeminent international human rights tribunal exposes the Russian government and armed forces' deliberate strategy of targeting healthcare in clear violation of the laws of war," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Justice Initiative, whose lawyers are representing the applicants.
In 2019, the UN Human Rights Commission - a separate body - said strikes on medical facilities in Syria including the Kafr Nobol hospital "strongly" suggested that "government-affiliated forces conducting these strikes are, at least partly, if not wholly, deliberately striking health facilities".

Arab World

Burhan Agrees to Declare State of Emergency in Khartoum

Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan salutes as he listens to the national anthem after landing in the military airport of Port Sudan on his first trip away following the crisis in Sudan's capital Khartoum since an internal conflict broke out, in the city of Port Sudan, Sudan, August 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan salutes as he listens to the national anthem after landing in the military airport of Port Sudan on his first trip away following the crisis in Sudan's capital Khartoum since an internal conflict broke out, in the city of Port Sudan, Sudan, August 27, 2023. (Reuters)
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Burhan Agrees to Declare State of Emergency in Khartoum

Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan salutes as he listens to the national anthem after landing in the military airport of Port Sudan on his first trip away following the crisis in Sudan's capital Khartoum since an internal conflict broke out, in the city of Port Sudan, Sudan, August 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan salutes as he listens to the national anthem after landing in the military airport of Port Sudan on his first trip away following the crisis in Sudan's capital Khartoum since an internal conflict broke out, in the city of Port Sudan, Sudan, August 27, 2023. (Reuters)

Acting governor of Khartoum Ahmed Othman Hamza announced on Wednesday that army commander and head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had agreed to a recommendation to declare a state of emergency in Khartoum State.

He said the higher committee for emergencies and crisis management in the state was in the process of issuing several decrees to impellent the state of emergency and tackle what he described as “foreign presence” in the capital.

The presence “has become a real threat to national security,” he added.

Foreigners are taking part in the fighting alongside the “rebel militia”, he went on to say in reference to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The army had in recent months recaptured parts of Khartoum, including areas in Omdurman, that were seized by the RSF.

The RSF still controls large parts of the capital and it is preparing to launch a large-scale offensive on al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur.

Should it succeed, it would have control over all Darfur states in western Sudan.

Doctors without Broders said on Wednesday it had treated over 100 people, including 11 children, who were wounded in the fighting in al-Fashir.

Arab World

Blinken Tours Kerem Shalom Aid Crossing as Tank Fire Rings Out from Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on May 1, 2024. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on May 1, 2024. (AFP)
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Blinken Tours Kerem Shalom Aid Crossing as Tank Fire Rings Out from Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on May 1, 2024. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on May 1, 2024. (AFP)

Tank fire echoed from the Gaza strip on Wednesday as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited an aid inspection point, where he heard from Israeli officials including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant about efforts to increase assistance to the Palestinian enclave just a few hundred meters away.

Blinken got his first up-close view of the strip six months into the war as he toured a compound at the Kerem Shalom crossing bordered by thick concrete walls where aid trucks bound for Gaza are held for inspection, a process that aid groups have complained has been a major bottleneck.

Sacks of canned chickpeas, rice, potatoes and toilet paper, some marked with the logo of the UN's World Food Program or the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid group sat on pallets waiting to enter Gaza. Soldiers carrying automatic weapons roamed around the area known as an "inspection cell".

Israel has sought to demonstrate it is not blocking aid to Gaza, especially since President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Netanyahu, saying Washington’s policy could shift if Israel fails to take steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.

That move came after seven WCK aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike, increasing anger over the dire conditions for Palestinians in Gaza.

US officials and aid groups say some progress has been made but warn it is insufficient, amid stark warnings of imminent famine among Gaza's 2.3 million people.

The war began when Palestinian Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 others, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israel has launched a relentless assault on Gaza, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians, local health authorities say, in a bombardment that has reduced the enclave to a wasteland.

The Kerem Shalom crossing was closed after Oct. 7, when Israel imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, but reopened to limited traffic in December. As well as the crossings at Kerem Shalom and nearby Rafah, on the border with Egypt, Israel has recently said it is opening crossings into northern Gaza to aid trucks.

Israeli officials can inspect 55 trucks every hour at Kerem Shalom and work from morning to sunset, said Shimon Freedman, international media spokesperson for COGAT, an Israeli Defense Ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories.

Freedman said the bottleneck on aid deliveries was inside Gaza, not on the Israeli side.

At least 26 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were waiting by the road just outside the Kerem Shalom inspection point waiting to enter. A Reuters witness also saw dozens of military vehicles and tanks on a field next to the road leading up to Kerem Shalom.

Blinken earlier on Wednesday discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the improvement in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu on April 4 and reiterated the importance of accelerating and sustaining that improvement," said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Ahead of his arrival in Israel, Blinken said Israel needed do more on aid, including by standing up a deconfliction mechanism with humanitarian agencies and making sure there are enough drivers and trucks within Gaza to deliver aid where it is needed.

He said a clear list of humanitarian items was also needed to make sure aid shipments were not arbitrarily denied entry into Gaza during Israel's inspections.

While the focus of Blinken's visit was on getting more aid to Palestinians in Gaza, Washington has also warned Israel not to go ahead with a planned assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Arab World

Hamas Official Says Blinken Ceasefire Comments Are Attempt to Pressure the Group

Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings as they return to Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled out troops from the southern Gaza Strip, 30 April 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings as they return to Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled out troops from the southern Gaza Strip, 30 April 2024. (EPA)
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Hamas Official Says Blinken Ceasefire Comments Are Attempt to Pressure the Group

Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings as they return to Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled out troops from the southern Gaza Strip, 30 April 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings as they return to Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled out troops from the southern Gaza Strip, 30 April 2024. (EPA)

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is blaming the delay of a Gaza ceasefire agreement on the Palestinian group unfairly.

Blinken, meeting Israeli leaders to discuss how to get more aid into Gaza, has repeatedly urged Hamas to accept an offer from Israel that will release hostages and achieve a ceasefire, describing it as "extraordinarily generous".

"Blinken's comments contradict reality. It is not strange for Blinken, who is known as the foreign minister of Israel, not America, to make such a statement," Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

"Even the Israeli negotiating team admitted Netanyahu was the one who was hindering reaching an agreement," he added.

Abu Zuhri said that the group was still studying the recent ceasefire offer.

Hamas is seeking a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel needs to destroy the remaining Hamas formations in Rafah in southern Gaza for its own security, with or without a deal with Hamas.