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Egypt: COVID Cases Continue to Decline

Students sit for university exams in Cairo. EPA file photo
Students sit for university exams in Cairo. EPA file photo
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Egypt: COVID Cases Continue to Decline

Students sit for university exams in Cairo. EPA file photo
Students sit for university exams in Cairo. EPA file photo

Egypt’s students will sit for their high school exams on Saturday amid high precautionary measures, as the number of COVID-19 fatalities continues to decline.

The Health Ministry urged the population on Friday to get vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab.

“The eligible categories are being expanded and the number of vaccine recipients is increasing as the Ministry obtains more batches of the vaccine,” the statement said, adding that Egypt is one of the first countries in the African continent to start manufacturing the vaccine.

The Ministry confirmed that in the past few weeks, Egypt obtained more than 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and that 610,000 doses will be sent to vaccine centers early next week, after completing their analysis.

The Ministry also expects to receive quantities of raw materials for the Sinovac vaccine by the end of next week, sufficient to manufacture 3 million doses, in addition to obtaining raw materials sufficient to produce 4.6 million doses by the end of this month.

The Ministry is scheduled to receive more AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines in the coming days, with plans to allocate them for travel purposes.

The statement noted that 2.4 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine are being manufactured locally and will be distributed to vaccination centers by the end of July.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said Friday that in the past 24 hours, 155 new coronavirus infections were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 282,737.

Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 19 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 16,351.

Also, 765 patients were discharged from hospitals after receiving medical care, taking the number of recoveries to 216,982, the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said that exams for the secondary certificate will kick off on Saturday in all Egyptian governorates.

The Ministry stressed the importance of preparing isolation rooms for each exam committee to isolate those suspected of being infected with the virus.

It added that people in charge of the exams must wear medical masks and must keep them throughout the exams.

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Arab World

Israeli Foreign Minister Says No Plans to Deport Palestinians from Gaza

Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Foreign Minister Says No Plans to Deport Palestinians from Gaza

Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Wednesday that the government does not plan to deport Palestinians from Gaza, after two Israeli ministers this month floated proposals for the mass removal of Palestinians from the coastal territory.

"We are not planning to expel or ‌to deport anyone ‌from (the) Gaza Strip," ‌Saar ⁠told a press ⁠conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

"If someone wants to immigrate (on) his own will, and there is a country which is ready to accept him .... we will not oppose that, ⁠but we will (also) not enforce ‌anyone ‌against (their) will," he said.

Saar is in ‌Slovenia to open the ‌Israeli embassy in Ljubljana.

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said on September 2 there was "no real solution for ‌Gaza in the end without this migration" of Palestinians.

Far-right ⁠security ⁠minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on September 3 outlined a seven-year plan for removing Gaza's population through what he described as "voluntary emigration."

The US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said that Israel has no plans to force Palestinians to leave Gaza.

Israel is to hold a general election on October 27.

Arab World

Lebanon Says One Dead in Israeli Drone Strike

This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)
This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says One Dead in Israeli Drone Strike

This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)
This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)

An Israeli strike killed one person in Lebanon's south, the Lebanese state news agency said on Wednesday, in a region where Israel has intensified attacks despite a ceasefire.

An Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in Zebdine in the Nabatieh region, killing a man, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

Since announcing last week the capture of the Ali al-Taher ridge, a strategic Hezbollah position in Nabatieh, the Israeli army has stepped up its strikes in the area.

The attacks have killed at least 29 people since Friday, including 12 members of the same family, according to Lebanese authorities and official media.

Fighting in Lebanon had calmed since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon were reached in June.

But Beirut still reports recurring Israeli strikes, which it says have killed more than 4,300 people in total since March, and Israeli forces continue to occupy a so-called occupied "security zone" in the south.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed concern about the Israeli "escalation" in southern Lebanon, according to his spokesperson.

In an online petition posted this week, nearly 400 Lebanese public figures, including legal experts and human rights advocates, called for Lebanon's army to be deployed in Nabatieh.

They also voiced concern over a possible "expansion of the Israeli occupation" toward the city, which is about 11 kilometers (seven miles) from the Israeli border.

"This city does not belong to any political group," added the signatories, referring to Hezbollah, which is well established in Nabatieh.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said its units were "deployed in all areas that Israel does not occupy, particularly in the Nabatieh region".

Arab World

Warehouse Explosion in Northwestern Syria Kills at Least 14

Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)
Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)
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Warehouse Explosion in Northwestern Syria Kills at Least 14

Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)
Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)

An explosion at a weapons warehouse in northwestern Syria killed at least 14 people and injured 11 others, state media reported Wednesday, citing the Health Ministry.

The cause of the blast near the town of Sarmada, in Idlib province, was not immediately clear. Such incidents are a relatively common occurrence in the country, which has been battered by over a decade of war.

The warehouse was used to store weapons and munitions left over from the country's uprising and civil war from 2011 until 2024, the state-run SANA news agency said, citing the Defense Ministry, without providing further details.

Civil Defense and Syrian Red Crescent first-responders are continuing to search for survivors trapped under the rubble. A photographer for The Associated Press at the scene saw bodies being recovered.

Video footage widely circulated after the blast showed a large plume of black smoke, while the sounds of smaller explosions could be heard.