Shawarma Restaurant in Cairo Brings Taste of Home for Displaced Palestinians

General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo
General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo
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Shawarma Restaurant in Cairo Brings Taste of Home for Displaced Palestinians

General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo
General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo

A Palestinian businessman displaced by the war in Gaza is bringing a taste of home for fellow refugees with a Shawarma restaurant he has opened in Cairo, Reuters reported.
"The Restaurant of Rimal Neighborhood" offers Shawarma, a Middle Eastern dish of thinly-sliced meat, and other Palestinian and Arab dishes.
"The name comes to eternalize Rimal, my neighborhood, and to eternalize my homeland too," said Basem Abu Al-Awn.
"It is also to replace the restaurant I once had in Gaza. Two restaurants of mine, in addition to my house and the houses of my relatives, were destroyed," he said.
Abu Al-Awn hopes his time outside Gaza will be temporary and he is determined to return to the enclave once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.
"I will return, even if I have to set up a tent near the rubble of my house. We are going back to Gaza and we will rebuild it," he told Reuters.
Rimal was Gaza City's busiest shopping center, with large malls and main bank offices before Israeli forces reduced most of it to rubble. It was also home to Gaza's most famous Shawarma places.
"The taste is the same, people tell us it tastes as if they are eating it in Gaza," said Ahmed Awad, the new restaurant's manager.
"The Egyptians who get to try our place keep coming back. They tell us the taste is nice and is different from the Shawarma they usually get," Awad said.
Gaza Shawarma spices are unique and scarce in Cairo, so credit goes to Awad's father, who mixes those available to give the dish a special Palestinian taste.
Many thousands of Palestinians have arrived in Gaza since the war began last October.

Awad, his wife, and four children arrived in Cairo three months ago. In Gaza, he used to work in restaurants specializing in oriental and Western dishes.
With an end to the war looking like a distant prospect, Awad urged Palestinians not to give up.
"I advise them to work, and take care of their lives, their houses and everything may have gone but no problem, it will come back again," he said. "Once things are resolved we will return home, work there, and rebuild our country."
Palestinians now stranded in Cairo include businessmen, students and ordinary families who say they seek some kind of temporary legal residency to pursue investment and study plans until a ceasefire is in place.
Palestinian and Egyptian leaders reject the permanent settlement of Palestinians outside their land.
Om Moaz, from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, had been struggling to pay for a rented house and treatment for her husband and daughter in Cairo. She began working from home, offering Palestinian food through social media.
She found there was a strong demand from both Egyptians and Palestinians.
"Some were in the war and came to Egypt. So they started ordering my food. And thank God, it's a successful business and hopefully, it continues," she said.



Musk Says Starship to Depart for Mars at End of 2026

(FILES) The SpaceX Starship lifts off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, for the Starship Flight 5 test. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES / AFP)
(FILES) The SpaceX Starship lifts off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, for the Starship Flight 5 test. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES / AFP)
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Musk Says Starship to Depart for Mars at End of 2026

(FILES) The SpaceX Starship lifts off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, for the Starship Flight 5 test. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES / AFP)
(FILES) The SpaceX Starship lifts off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, for the Starship Flight 5 test. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES / AFP)

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Saturday its massive Starship rocket would leave for Mars at the end of 2026 with Tesla humanoid robot Optimus onboard, adding that human landings could follow "as soon as 2029."

"Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus. If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely," Musk said on his X social network, according to AFP.

Musk, who is also the Tesla CEO, brought out the company's Optimus robots at an event last year.

He said the dancing robots would one day be able to do menial tasks, as well as offer friendship, and expected them to retail for $20,000 to $30,000.

Starship -- the world's largest and most powerful rocket -- is key to Musk's long-term vision of colonizing Mars.

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall -- about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty -- Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable.

NASA is also awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade.

But before SpaceX can carry out those missions, it must prove the vehicle is reliable, safe for crew, and capable of complex in-orbit refueling -- critical for deep space missions.

SpaceX faced a setback this month when its latest test flight of the Starship prototype ended in a fiery explosion, even as the booster was successfully caught in its orbital test.

It was a near replay of the previous attempt.

Minutes after liftoff and booster separation, a live video feed showed the upper stage tumbling uncontrollably before the signal abruptly cut.

Dramatic footage circulating online showed red-hot debris raining down over the Bahamas.

It marked its eighth uncrewed orbital test.