Egypt: Sisi Labels Palestinian Displacement from Gaza as ‘Red Line’

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Egyptian presidency)
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Egyptian presidency)
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Egypt: Sisi Labels Palestinian Displacement from Gaza as ‘Red Line’

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Egyptian presidency)
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Egyptian presidency)

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has reiterated his country’s rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt labeling it as “a red line.”

"We strongly oppose the relocation of Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan," said Sisi, stressing that the deportation of Palestinians is a red line for Egypt, and it will not be permitted.

“I say to all Egyptians and people worldwide that the Rafah crossing has never been closed and will never be closed to aid entering the Gaza Strip," he said.

These remarks were made during a speech the Egyptian president delivered before thousands of Egyptians at an event in support of Palestine held at Cairo International Stadium.

Following Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on Israel on Oct. 7, Egypt has warned several times of pushing the Gazans to leave their land toward Sinai.

The Egyptian president added that the Palestinian cause faces a dangerous and sensitive phase amid an unpredictable and inhumane escalation. This escalation adopts collective punishment and commits massacres as a means to impose a reality on the ground, leading to the deportation of the people, and the seizure of land, he added.

"Nearly 12,000 tons of relief aid, transported by 1,300 trucks, were transferred to Gaza via Rafah crossing," said Sisi. The state contributed 8,400 tons, accounting for 70 percent of the total aid.

On Thursday, the National Alliance for Civil Development Work announced that a new aid convoy of more than 500 trucks was on its way to Palestine.

Sisi recounted Egypt’s efforts to prevent the escalation of this war on all levels.

He said that on the political level, Egypt held the first international summit in Cairo, in which several countries convened to secure international approval for ending this conflict and ensuring the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Last month, the New Administrative Capital hosted the Cairo Peace Summit during which Sisi declared that eliminating the Palestinian cause without a just solution would never happen at the expense of Egypt.

Moreover, the Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh called for breaking the siege and ensuring the immediate flow of aid to the Strip.

The president further stressed the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and a just and comprehensive peace agreement, adding that through the joint efforts of Egypt, the US, and Qatar, Hamas and Israel reached a humanitarian truce for four days, which could be extended.



Israeli Strike Kills Three in Gaza, Medics Say

 Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strike Kills Three in Gaza, Medics Say

 Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)

An Israeli strike killed at least three in Gaza on Friday, according to Palestinian health officials.

The strike hit a crowded area in Gaza City near an area where local police are stationed to guard a bank, said the medics and eyewitnesses.

Gaza's interior ministry said ‌that the strike ‌had killed two policemen and ‌wounded ⁠two others, in ⁠a statement on Friday.

Reuters has previously reported that Israel has heightened its attacks on Gaza's Hamas-run police force that the group has used to reestablish governance in the areas it controls ⁠in the strip.

It was not immediately ‌clear whether ‌any of Gaza's police force had been killed in ‌the attack.

The Israeli military did not ‌immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Violence in Gaza has persisted despite the October 2025 ceasefire, with Israel conducting ‌near-daily attacks on Palestinians.

At least 790 Palestinians have been killed since ⁠the ceasefire ⁠deal took effect, according to local medics, while Israel says gunmen have killed four of its soldiers.

Israel and Hamas have exchanged blame for ceasefire violations.

More than 72,000 Gazans have been killed since the war started in October 2023, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Hamas' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.


UN Says Israeli Strikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah Rockets into Israel May Breach International Law

People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)
People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)
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UN Says Israeli Strikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah Rockets into Israel May Breach International Law

People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)
People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)

The UN human rights office said on Friday it has documented patterns of attacks on civilians in populated areas and residential buildings in Lebanon and Israel that may amount to serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The report covers the first three weeks of the latest escalation, which began after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel on March 2, prompting Israel to respond with a large-scale military offensive.

Since then, nearly 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, amid widespread displacement and heavy damage to civilian infrastructure. US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a three-week extension to a ceasefire.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah did ‌not immediately respond to ‌Reuters requests for comment about the report.

RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS STRUCK, OHCHR ‌SAYS

The ⁠Office of the ⁠United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documented several cases in which Israeli strikes hit, and in some instances destroyed, multi-storey residential buildings, killing entire families in Lebanon, which may constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law, OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said.

The report cited the example of an Israeli strike on March 8 that hit a multi-storey residential building in the town of Sir el-Gharbiyeh, in the Nabatiyeh governorate. The strike killed at least 13 civilians inside the building, ⁠including five women, five men, two boys and a girl.

The office ‌said incidents such as this raised concerns about compliance ‌with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack under international humanitarian law.

The report also ‌said the OHCHR had found Hezbollah was firing unguided rockets that lacked the precision ‌required to strike specific military targets, and damaged buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Israel, which likely violated international humanitarian law.

While the office noted that notifications, including blanket evacuation warnings, had been issued by Israeli forces before some strikes in Lebanon, it identified cases in which warnings were either not given, were ‌ineffective, or prevented many civilians from evacuating safely.

WARNING AFTER JOURNALIST KILLED

Meanwhile, the OHCHR also said on Friday that attacks on journalists could ⁠amount to war ⁠crimes if they were deliberate.

An Israeli strike on Wednesday killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured photographer Zeinab Faraj, who was accompanying her in southern Lebanon.

Rescue teams, including the Lebanese Red Cross, faced obstruction by the Israeli military when trying to reach them, Lebanon's health ministry said.

"This included the use of a sound grenade and live fire targeting an ambulance, delaying access to the site," Al-Kheetan added.

The Israeli military said the Israeli Air Force troops struck a vehicle and a structure after two vehicles in southern Lebanon were identified as leaving a Hezbollah military site, and crossed the Forward Defense Line, which posed an immediate threat.

It received reports that two journalists were injured, the army said, but it did not prevent rescue teams from reaching the area. The army does not deliberately target journalists or medical teams and the incident is under review, it added.


Unexploded Bombs Littering Gaza Threaten Recovery for Decades, UN Warns

Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
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Unexploded Bombs Littering Gaza Threaten Recovery for Decades, UN Warns

Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP

War-torn Gaza is heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance, which frequently kill and maim people and could threaten recovery efforts far into the future, the UN said Friday.

Unexploded ordnance, ranging from undetonated bombs or grenades to simple bullets, has become a common sight in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel's war in the Palestinian territory, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said it had data suggesting that since the start of the conflict, more than 1,000 people had been killed in Gaza due to "indirect conflict", from the remnants of war, AFP reported.

Julius Van der Walt, UNMAS chief in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, stressed that that number was certainly a severe under-estimate.

Half of the known casualties were children, he told reporters in Geneva.

Speaking along side him at a press conference on mine action work worldwide, Narmina Strishenets of Save the Children UK, also highlighted the heavy toll on youngsters.

A report by the organization published last year found that in 2024, the use of explosive weapons in Gaza left an average of 475 children each month with potentially lifelong disabilities, including amputations.

Today, Strishenets said, Gaza has "the largest cohort of child amputees" in the world.

- 'High density' -

Van der Walt said UNMAS had so far been unable to conduct an extensive survey of the full scope of the problem, but "the evidence already suggests a high density of explosive ordnance contamination across the Gaza Strip".

So far, UNMAS had identified "more than 1,000 items of explosive ordnance", during missions conducted over the past 2.5 years.

Compared to Gaza's small geographic size, that means there is about one piece of explosive ordnance "every 600 metres", he pointed out.

And those are only the items that have been found.

"We have barely scratched the surface in understanding what is the level of contamination," he acknowledged.

Adding to the danger was Gaza's very high population density.

Prior to the conflict, Gaza was one already of the most densely-populated places on Earth, with around 6,000 people per square kilometre, Van der Walt said, pointing out that the war had effectively halved the space available, and doubled the density.

"Explosive weapons are being used all across the territories, including in densely-populated refugee camps," he said, pointing to a recent case where explosive ordnance was found inside a tent where people had been living for several weeks.

At the same time, "humanitarian convoys risk detonation as they travel throughout the Gaza Strip, and early recovery efforts are essentially stalled before they can even begin", he said.

- $541 million -

Van der Walt pointed to an assessment that, in a best case scenario, it will cost around $541 million to address the explosive ordnance threat, if all necessary permissions are granted and the equipment required is accessible.

He warned that the contamination, including within mountains of debris, was so vast and so varied, that it was "very close to impossible to ... do a full assessment", and that ordnance would likely remain a problem for decades to come.

He pointed to the World War II bombs that continue to be discovered during construction projects in Britain.

"We can anticipate something along those lines" in Gaza, he said.