Moscow Reassures Cairo on Completion of El-Dabaa Nuclear Plant

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. (Reuters)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. (Reuters)
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Moscow Reassures Cairo on Completion of El-Dabaa Nuclear Plant

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. (Reuters)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. (Reuters)

Moscow is seeking to reassure Cairo about the completion of the project to build the first Egyptian nuclear plant.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, meanwhile, stressed the need to exert efforts and address all means leading to a calm and peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine.

Shoukry told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba it is imperative to resolve the crisis with Russia peacefully and stop the bloodshed.

In a phone call on Thursday, they shared the latest humanitarian and field developments in Ukraine and the course of talks between Russia and Ukraine, a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.

Shoukry pointed out Egypt's interest in preventing bloodshed.

According to the statement, he briefed his Ukrainian counterpart about the emergency meeting held by the Arab League and its contact group.

Meanwhile, Russian collaborative projects with Egypt have not been affected by the war with Ukraine, according to Moscow’s top envoy to the African nation.

“According to the communication between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was emphasized that the El-Dabaa (nuclear power) project and the Russian industrial zone in Egypt have been completed, and that shipments of Russian wheat were supplied to Egypt,” Russian Ambassador to Egypt Georgy Borisenko said.

Sisi and Putin spoke over the phone two weeks ago to discuss the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, as well as ways to strengthen cooperation and friendly relations between Moscow and Cairo, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.

Speaking at a press conference on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Egyptian Association of Graduates of Russian and Soviet Universities, Borisenko said: “The remittances of students in Russia have not been affected, especially since there are Russian banks that have not been subjected to Western sanctions.”

Egypt, in cooperation with Russia, is inaugurating a nuclear plant in the city of El-Dabaa in Matrouh Governorate on the Mediterranean coast. The plant consists of four nuclear reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, with a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.