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Protecting Biodiversity an Important Environmental Challenge, Says Egypt's Environment Minister

A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
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Protecting Biodiversity an Important Environmental Challenge, Says Egypt's Environment Minister

A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)
A western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also known as a western reef egret, stands in the water at the site of a state-sponsored mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt's southern Red Sea coast on September 16, 2022. (AFP)

Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad stressed that protecting migratory birds and biodiversity is one of the global and regional environmental challenges that Egypt is keen to address during the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27).

She made her remarks at the opening of the regional conference organized by Birdlife International, in cooperation with the Migratory Soaring Birds Project of the Ministry of Environment, under the title “Safe Flyways: Conference on Energy and Birds” from October 8 to 10, reported the United Arab Emirates' state news agency (WAM).

The conference aims to document relations and mutual understanding between the energy sector and nature conservation organizations along the African-Eurasian migration path in order to strengthen the relationship, understanding, and partnership between nature conservation, especially birds and energy infrastructure along the migration path.

Fouad invited attendees to the COP27, scheduled for Sharm El Sheikh in November, and called on them to create global momentum on the importance of protecting the environment and biological diversity from the effects of climate change during the Cop27 in Egypt and the Cop28 in the United Arab Emirates.

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Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Weather is compounding the challenges facing displaced people in Gaza, where heavy rains and dropping temperatures are making tents and other temporary shelters uninhabitable.

Government officials in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave said on Monday that nearly 10,000 tents had been swept away by flooding over the past two days, adding to their earlier warnings about the risks facing those sheltering in low-lying floodplains, including areas designated as humanitarian zones.

Um Mohammad Marouf, a mother who fled bombardments in northern Gaza and now is sheltering with her family in a Gaza City tent said the downpour had covered her children and left everyone wet and vulnerable.

“We have nothing to protect ourselves,” she said outside the United Nations-provided tent where she lives with 10 family members.

Marouf and others living in rows of cloth and nylon tents hung their drenched clothing on drying lines and re-erected their tarpaulin walls on Monday.

Officials from the Hamas-run government said that 81% of the 135,000 tents appeared unfit for shelter, based on recent assessments, and blamed Israel for preventing the entry of additional needed tents. They said many had been swept away by seawater or were inadequate to house displaced people as winter sets in.

The UNestimates that around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services. Israeli evacuation warnings now cover around 90% of the territory.

“The first rains of the winter season mean even more suffering. Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding. The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike,” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote in a statement on X on Monday.