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Egypt Accelerates Construction of Border Wall with Gaza

Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas patrol near the border between Egypt and Gaza. (Reuters file photo)
Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas patrol near the border between Egypt and Gaza. (Reuters file photo)
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Egypt Accelerates Construction of Border Wall with Gaza

Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas patrol near the border between Egypt and Gaza. (Reuters file photo)
Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas patrol near the border between Egypt and Gaza. (Reuters file photo)

Egyptian authorities have sped up efforts to construct a wall on the border with the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to end the infiltration of extremists to and from Sinai.

Palestinian sources in Gaza said the Egyptian army intensified its construction work, which it started in late January.

The construction intensified after an Egyptian intelligence delegation visited the Strip this week. The delegation was accompanied by an engineering team which visited the border region.

The 6-meter-high “separation wall” will extend along the border and reach five meters underground.

Israeli media said the construction will be completed before the end of 2020. The western part of the barrier will be merged with the Israeli system established under and above water in the Mediterranean Sea, to prevent divers from infiltrating into settlements near Gaza.

Palestinian media published photos showing the construction of the wall along the Gaza Strip.

Construction has accelerated significantly in the recent period and Egyptian authorities are working to finish the wall in the shortest possible time, according to local Palestinian sources.

The Hamas movement in Gaza cooperates closely with Cairo to end infiltration operations. In recent months, the movement has pushed more of its forces to the border to better secure the area.

Within two years, Hamas bulldozed several areas, installed barbed wire and cameras and began patrolling the border. Hundreds of its security personnel monitor the border with Egypt, as the movement seeks to crack down on ISIS elements in Sinai.

Hamas focuses on pursuing and arresting members of extremist organizations, and usually refers them to military trials before imprisoning them.

Field control forces, which include members of the al-Qassam Brigades and Interior Ministry, monitor the borders with Egypt. The Interior Ministry plays a direct role in securing the border, but al-Qassam Brigades occasionally intervene to secure the Rafah area to prevent “salafist jihadists” from crossing the border where they operate with ISIS in Sinai.

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Arab World

Civilians Pay a Heavy Price as War in Lebanon Drives Death, Displacement, UN Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
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Civilians Pay a Heavy Price as War in Lebanon Drives Death, Displacement, UN Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)

Civilians are paying a heavy price as the war in Lebanon continues to expand, driving death, injuries and displacement the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"Displacement is increasing incredibly quickly. Right ‌now, hundreds of ‌thousands of people ‌left ⁠their homes. Many ⁠leaving with very little, just the clothes they were wearing," said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza.

Lebanon was sucked ⁠into the war in ‌the ‌Middle East on March 2 when ‌Hezbollah opened fire at ‌Israel, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Israel has responded ‌with an offensive that has killed more ⁠than ⁠800 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes.

Almost a fifth of people living in Lebanon are now registered as displaced, according to Lebanese government figures, with displacement set to increase, the UN said.

Israeli air strikes on residential buildings in Lebanon raise concerns under international law, the human ‌rights ‌office said ‌on ⁠Tuesday said.

"Israeli air ⁠strikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense ⁠urban environments with ‌multiple ‌members of the ‌same family, ‌including women and children often killed together," ‌UN human rights office spokesperson ⁠Thameen Al-Kheetan ⁠told reporters in Geneva.

"Such attacks raise concerns under international humanitarian law," he added.

Arab World

Lebanese Army Says One Soldier Killed, Four Wounded in Israeli Strike

17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)
17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)
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Lebanese Army Says One Soldier Killed, Four Wounded in Israeli Strike

17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)
17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)

One Lebanese soldier was killed and four were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said on Tuesday, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. 

The soldiers were struck while travelling by car and motorcycle and were taken to ‌hospital, the army ‌said in a post on ‌X, ⁠adding in a ⁠subsequent statement that one of the wounded had died of his injuries. 

The Israeli military said it was aware of reports that Lebanese soldiers were wounded in a strike in southern Lebanon and that the incident was ⁠under review. 

It said that it operates ‌against Hezbollah and ‌not against the Lebanese Armed Forces. 

The strike comes ‌amid intensifying Israeli attacks across Lebanon, which have ‌killed more than 880 people and displaced more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities. 

The Lebanese army has also reported casualties in recent days, ‌including an incident earlier this month in which three soldiers were among ⁠those ⁠killed in Israeli strikes, according to the army. 

Israel's military, which has occupied five positions in southern Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, sent additional forces into the country after the group fired a salvo of rockets on March 2, dragging Lebanon into the expanding US-Israeli war with Iran. 

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned Lebanon that it could face territorial losses unless Hezbollah was disarmed. 

Arab World

Iraq in Talks with Iran to Safeguard Oil Tanker Traffic Through Hormuz

Vehicles enter and exit an underpass road during rainfall in Baghdad on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
Vehicles enter and exit an underpass road during rainfall in Baghdad on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Iraq in Talks with Iran to Safeguard Oil Tanker Traffic Through Hormuz

Vehicles enter and exit an underpass road during rainfall in Baghdad on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
Vehicles enter and exit an underpass road during rainfall in Baghdad on March 15, 2026. (AFP)

Iraq's oil minister said Baghdad is talking to Iran about allowing some of the country's oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the state news agency reported on Tuesday, as Iraq seeks to ease disruptions to crude exports following recent attacks on tankers in its own waters.

Iraq is also working to restore a disused pipeline that would allow oil to be pumped directly ‌to Türkiye's ‌Ceyhan port without passing through the ‌Kurdistan ⁠region, Oil Minister ⁠Hayan Abdel-Ghani said in a video statement released on Monday.

Iraq will complete an inspection of a 100-km (62-mile) section of the pipeline within a week to enable direct exports from Kirkuk, he added.

The reopening of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been shut for ⁠more than a decade, would offer ‌an alternative export route ‌at a time when shipping through the strategic Strait ‌of Hormuz is severely disrupted by the conflict ‌in the Middle East.

Exports via the 960-km pipeline, which once handled about 0.5% of global supply, were halted in 2014 after repeated attacks by ISIS militants.

The ‌oil ministry has said exports via the route could initially reach around 250,000 ⁠barrels ⁠per day, rising to about 450,000 bpd of crude from fields in the Kurdistan region is included.

Baghdad has sought to use the Kurdistan pipeline as a temporary route for crude flows but said the Kurdistan Regional Government had set arbitrary conditions for its use, warning it may take legal action if exports are blocked.

Kurdish authorities have rejected the accusations, saying they are not obstructing exports and that Baghdad has failed to address security and economic challenges facing the region’s oil sector.