Egypt, Albania Agree on Importance of Supporting Stability in East Mediterranean

Sisi receives Rama and the accompanying delegation in Cairo. (Egyptian Presidency Spokesman)
Sisi receives Rama and the accompanying delegation in Cairo. (Egyptian Presidency Spokesman)
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Egypt, Albania Agree on Importance of Supporting Stability in East Mediterranean

Sisi receives Rama and the accompanying delegation in Cairo. (Egyptian Presidency Spokesman)
Sisi receives Rama and the accompanying delegation in Cairo. (Egyptian Presidency Spokesman)

Egypt and Albania have agreed on the importance of maintaining stability in the East Mediterranean region and respecting the sovereignty of countries.

They also stressed the need to coordinate efforts to confront terrorism and radical ideology.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received on Saturday Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to discuss means of expanding bilateral cooperation.

According to presidential spokesman Bassam Rady, Sisi expressed his country’s pride in the friendship and historical ties with Albania, hoping to expand bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Both sides discussed means of developing bilateral ties in line with their historic relations and addressing aspects of economic cooperation. They tackled means to increase trade exchange and bolster mutual investments in various sectors, the spokesman added.

They discussed regional developments and agreed on the importance of maintaining stability in the eastern Mediterranean region, respecting the sovereignty and rights of states in terms of their natural resources on their lands and their exclusive economic zones, in accordance with the rules of international law and the principles of good neighborliness.

Rama commended Egypt’s experience in spreading moderate Islam and confronting religious intolerance and hatred.

He pointed to Sisi’s efforts to support the values of coexistence, tolerance and acceptance of the other.



Women and Children Scavenge for Food in Gaza, UN Official Says

 Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Women and Children Scavenge for Food in Gaza, UN Official Says

 Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Large groups of women and children are scavenging for food among mounds of trash in parts of the Gaza Strip, a UN official said on Friday following a visit to the Palestinian enclave.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, expressed concern about the levels of hunger, even in areas of central Gaza where aid agencies have teams on the ground.

"I was particularly alarmed by the prevalence of hunger," Sunghay told a Geneva press briefing via video link from Jordan. "Acquiring basic necessities has become a daily, dreadful struggle for survival."

Sunghay said the UN had been unable to take any aid to northern Gaza, where he said an estimated 70,000 people remain following "repeated impediments or rejections of humanitarian convoys by the Israeli authorities".

Sunghay visited camps for people recently displaced from parts of northern Gaza. They were living in horrendous conditions with severe food shortages and poor sanitation, he said.

"It is so obvious that massive humanitarian aid needs to come in – and it is not. It is so important the Israeli authorities make this happen," he said. He did not specify the last time UN agencies had sent aid to northern Gaza.

US WARNING

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin set out steps last month for Israel to carry out in 30 days to address the situation in Gaza, warning that failure to do so may have consequences on US military aid to Israel.

The State Department said on Nov. 12 that President Joe Biden's administration had concluded that Israel was not currently impeding assistance to Gaza and therefore was not violating US law.

The Israeli army, which began its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the group's attack on southern Israeli communities in October 2023, said its operating in northern Gaza since Oct. 5 were trying to prevent militants regrouping and waging attacks from those areas.

Israel's government body that oversees aid, Cogat, says it facilitates the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and accuses UN agencies of not distributing it efficiently.

Looting has also depleted aid supplies within the Gaza Strip, with nearly 100 food aid trucks raided on Nov. 16.

"The women I met had all either lost family members, were separated from their families, had relatives buried under rubble, or were themselves injured or sick," Sunghay said of his stay in the Gaza Strip.

"Breaking down in front of me, they desperately pleaded for a ceasefire."