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Sisi Visits Khartoum to Discuss Bilateral Relations, GERD Crisis

Sisi met Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi in Cairo early this week (press photo)
Sisi met Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi in Cairo early this week (press photo)
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Sisi Visits Khartoum to Discuss Bilateral Relations, GERD Crisis

Sisi met Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi in Cairo early this week (press photo)
Sisi met Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi in Cairo early this week (press photo)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is set to arrive in Khartoum on Saturday to discuss bilateral relations and issues related to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Sisi’s short visit is the first to Khartoum after President Omar al-Bashir's ouster, almost two years ago.

“President Sisi’s visit to the country starts Saturday and lasts for a couple of hours,” Sudan’s Information Ministry announced.

However, no Sudanese official statements were released about Sisi’s agenda or the officials he is expected to meet.

Last Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi met Sisi in Cairo and said that Sudan is looking forward to an anticipated visit to Khartoum by the Egyptian President within the coming days.

Meanwhile, media reports said Sisi’s visit would discuss military cooperation between Cairo and Khartoum, Ethiopia’s filling of the GERD reservoir in violation of previous compacts, in addition to the electricity issue and the border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia in the al-Fashaga region.

Earlier, the Sudanese FM met Sisi and her Egyptian counterpart Minister Sameh Shoukry and highlighted the importance of reaching a binding legal agreement on filling and operating GERD.

In a joint press conference, the two foreign ministers stressed that Ethiopia's possible second-phase filling of the Nile dam unilaterally would pose a direct threat to the water security of Egypt and Sudan.

Cairo and Khartoum still hope to reach a binding diplomatic solution on water usage mediated by the US, EU, UN, and African Union.

Sisi’s visit to Sudan on Saturday comes after several visits by high-level Egyptian and Sudanese political and military officials to Cairo and Khartoum.

Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Council Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan and Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok had both visited Cairo and held talks with Sisi over bilateral relations and the filling and operation of GERD.

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Arab World

Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza's civil defense rescue service said on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes in the Palestinian territory had killed seven people overnight, despite the fragile ceasefire in place since October last year.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the group, which operates under the authority of the Hamas movement, said an Israeli drone had fired two missiles close to a police post in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

In addition to the seven dead, he said, several more people were wounded, four of them critically.

The al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza said it had received six bodies and seven wounded, "including four in a critical condition because of direct impacts to the face, torso and other parts of the body".

The nearby al-Awda hospital said it had received one fatality and two wounded.

Reached for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it was working to verify the information.

Israel and Hamas regularly accuse each other of violating the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, after two years of war triggered by the Palestinian movement's 2023 cross-border attack.

At least 738 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five soldiers killed since the start of the truce.

Under the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of accessing the field -- the international press is still barred by the Israeli authorities from entering.

Arab World

In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

In southern Gaza, aid workers are meticulously assembling fiberglass homes meant to shelter thousands of Palestinians still displaced six months after a ceasefire started between Israel and Hamas.

Nearly two million people in Gaza are living in makeshift shelters, and the humanitarian situation remains dire, according to aid agencies.

The fiberglass units are designed to offer a modicum of relief -- homes with slightly more comfort than a tent vulnerable to the coastal winds that hit Gaza.

Alessandro Markic, head of the United Nations Development Program office in Gaza, initiated the plan. He said families "are facing extremely difficult conditions".

Roughly 4,000 units are planned in the al-Mohararat area, west of Khan Younis.

Workers assemble walls, install small windows, and lay roofs for families who try to settle in with rugs and cushions inside.

"These are very basic and temporary solutions, while we continue to plan for recovery and reconstruction," Markic said. The homes, he added, "provide more dignity, privacy, and protection during the winter."

Some Gazans were visibly relieved to have an alternative to the tents where most displaced people continue to live.

Nasma Sharab has moved into one unit with her sons, and affirmed it was "better" than a tent.

The fiberglass homes "don't constantly blow away in the wind," she said.

But, she added, "it's a temporary solution while we wait for reconstruction to begin and for people to be able to go back to their homes."

Among those who remain in a tent is Ali Abu Nahl, in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, after being displaced to the center and south of the territory with his children and grandchildren.

His house was destroyed during the devastating conflict that erupted with the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023.

"It's been half a year since the bombing stopped, but in Gaza, the war doesn't end when the strikes stop," he said.

Arab World

Pressure Mounts on Hamas as It Weighs Response on Disarmament

Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Pressure Mounts on Hamas as It Weighs Response on Disarmament

Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

Diplomatic momentum is building around a Gaza ceasefire, as Hamas and other Palestinian factions prepare their final response to a “Board of Peace” plan on the movement’s disarmament and the second phase of the deal.

Talks were set to begin in Cairo on Friday and Saturday, with more meetings possible, bringing together Palestinian factions, Egyptian officials, and the Board of Peace’s high representative, Nickolay Mladenov.

Mladenov has held several rounds of talks in Egypt with officials and European representatives, following a second meeting last week with a Hamas delegation.

Sources from Hamas and other factions told Asharq Al-Awsat the group will present a unified Palestinian position, outlining its vision and proposed amendments to the plan submitted more than two weeks ago.

The response will stop short of outright acceptance or rejection, the sources said. Instead, Hamas will propose clear amendments and push for deeper negotiations to prevent Israel from using the process as a pretext to resume the war.

The group also aims to convince mediators, the United States, and the Board of Peace to broaden the talks beyond weapons, to include key provisions from both the first and second phases.

In its latest meeting with Mladenov, Hamas stressed that Israel must fully implement the first phase before any move to the second.

A Hamas source said the group would show flexibility with mediators to reach solutions that prevent renewed fighting, accusing the hardline government of Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking a return to war.

Resetting the terms

Hamas and other factions want a new negotiating framework that reflects Palestinian demands, rather than accepting imposed terms without binding commitments on Israel, another source said.

Details of the response remain undisclosed. But earlier discussions suggested handing over a limited number of vehicles mounted with “Dushka” machine guns, which Israel classifies as heavy weapons. At a later stage, factions could retain light arms under a mechanism overseen by mediators as part of a long-term truce.

Factions say they no longer possess what Israel defines as heavy weapons, such as rockets. Their remaining capabilities, they say, are limited to small numbers of anti-armor projectiles, explosive devices, light weapons such as Kalashnikov rifles, and some vehicle-mounted Dushka guns.

Pressure or coordination

Hamas sources acknowledge the group will face significant pressure in the coming talks, but say key mediators in Egypt, Türkiye, and Qatar understand its demands, even as they urge it to scale back proposed amendments.

A senior Hamas delegation has held meetings in Egypt and Türkiye, including with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, both of whom played key roles in the initial ceasefire negotiations.

Hamas said the meetings were part of consultations on Gaza and proposed amendments, denying that it was coming under pressure from Ankara.

The Board of Peace plan calls for full consolidation of all weapons, including light, heavy, tribal, and personal arms. Israel backs the plan. Hamas rejects it in its current form, citing security threats to its leaders and rejecting any link between disarmament and reconstruction of Gaza.

On the Israeli side, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel is awaiting Hamas’s response. If it is negative, the decision would fall to Netanyahu’s government, which may move to enforce disarmament by force.

Israeli sources told the paper all options remain open, but with focus on the northern front with Lebanon, a return to fighting in Gaza in the coming days appears unlikely.