Egypt: Tarek Al-Zumar on Terror List for 3rd Time

Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Egypt: Tarek Al-Zumar on Terror List for 3rd Time

Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Court of Cassation, the highest judicial body in Egypt, upheld on Thursday a court ruling that enlists the former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party, fugitive Tarek al-Zumar, and 318 other defendants of the Sinai insurgency case, on the list of terrorist entities.

Zumar is accused of playing a pivotal role in the ISIS-affiliated “Wilayat Sinai”, providing financial support to the group from outside Egypt.

On Thursday, the Court rejected the defendants' appeal to a Cairo Criminal Court ruling, which enlisted the 319 defendants on the terror list.

“The Court of Cassation ruling is final and cannot be appealed,” judicial sources said.

The “Wilayat Sinai” case, which involves 555 suspected terrorists, is linked to attacks carried out by the terrorist organization in North Sinai.

In is the third time Egypt places the name of Zumar on its terrorist list.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Zumar to death last September in the case known in the media as "Rabaa sit-in dispersal."

In March, an Egyptian court placed Zumar and 319 people on a terrorist list for their links to the "Second Wilayat Sinai."

Last November, the Cairo Criminal Court again placed his name among 164 names on Egypt's terror list, including Mohammed Shawki al-Islambouli, another fugitive in Turkey, Assem Abdelmajid, who is in Qatar, and others.

Zumar is included in a list of 59 terrorists announced by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in June after the four countries cut relations with Qatar over its support for terrorism.

He is being tried in absentia in Egypt.

Zumar was imprisoned in 1984, along with his cousin Abboud al-Zumar, over accusations of assassinating former Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat.



Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Hezbollah said its fighters on Thursday fired missiles at a military base near south Israel’s Ashdod, the first time it has targeted so deep inside Israel in more than a year of hostilities.

Hezbollah fighters "targeted... for the first time, the Hatzor air base" east of the southern city, around 150 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, "with a missile salvo," the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

A rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man and wounded two others in northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The service said paramedics found the body of the man in his 30s near a playground in the town of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, after a rocket attack on Thursday.
Israel meanwhile struck targets in southern Lebanon and several buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Israel has launched airstrikes against Lebanon after Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' attack on Israel last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It is not known how many of those killed were Hezbollah fighters and how many were civilians.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s aerial attacks have killed more than 70 people and driven some 60,000 from their homes.