Egypt Warns of Third COVID-19 Wave

 Workers sterilizing al-Sayyida Nafisa mosque in Cairo (DPA)
Workers sterilizing al-Sayyida Nafisa mosque in Cairo (DPA)
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Egypt Warns of Third COVID-19 Wave

 Workers sterilizing al-Sayyida Nafisa mosque in Cairo (DPA)
Workers sterilizing al-Sayyida Nafisa mosque in Cairo (DPA)

An Egyptian health official said the country is preparing for a third COVID-19 wave, citing a surge in virus infections.

Presidential Adviser for Health Affairs Mohamed Awad Tageldin revealed that it is highly probable for Egypt to enter the third wave, stressing the importance of receiving the vaccine to curb the spread of the virus.

In a statement on Saturday, Tageldin affirmed that the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines are “minor.”

He also said that it is not possible to determine if Egypt will start reporting a decline in infections before figures become stable.

The Health Ministry recorded on Friday 794 new cases and 39 deaths, raising the infection tally in the country to 208,876, including 158,454 recoveries and 12,362 deaths.

Meanwhile, the cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) said Egypt ranked 68 out of 215 world countries in terms of the number of people infected with the virus. It also ranked seventh in the rate of deaths among the people infected and 178 in the rate of recoveries.



Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said.

The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of meters from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.

Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.