Cairo : At a time when Egyptian anger is escalating over the Israeli occupation army’s bombing of the Rafah crossing and the threat to bomb humanitarian aid trucks if Cairo tries to bring them in without the occupier’s approval, and the casualties of Egyptian soldiers on the border caused by an Israeli tank shell, President Abdel Fattah inspected Al-Sisi, war inspection procedures for the Fourth Armored Division of the Third Field Army in Suez, east of the country.
Al-Sisi's visit to the city of Suez also came at a time when Cairo repeatedly announced its rejection of the project to displace and resettle the people of the Gaza Strip in Sinai, which seemed to carry messages at home and abroad.
Border protection
Al-Sisi stressed that the role of the Egyptian army is to protect the borders. He said that his country is playing a very positive role in containing the escalation in the Gaza Strip, and that the solution to the Palestinian issue is a diplomatic solution, giving the Palestinian people the right to their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that it is important to use capabilities wisely in light of the current events, pointing out that the role of the army It is to secure the Egyptian borders.
He directed his speech to the citizens: I tell the Egyptians that it is important to use force rationally, rationally, and wisely, without tyranny, and Egypt deals with all crises with reason and patience, without exceeding the use of force.
He considered that the Egyptian army, with its strength, status, ability and efficiency, aims to protect Egypt and its national security without transgression.
He added that Egypt played a positive role in containing the escalation in the Gaza Strip over the course of five rounds of the conflict, and is making great efforts to provide civilians in the Gaza Strip with all the necessary assistance and alleviate their suffering.
Regarding relief aid to the Gaza Strip, sources revealed to Al-Quds Al-Arabi that only 8 trucks out of 20 trucks representing the fourth batch of relief trucks were able to enter the Gaza Strip the day before Tuesday.
Bringing the total number of trucks that have already entered the sector to 62 trucks.
The fifth batch of humanitarian and relief aid, numbering 20 trucks, set off from the Rafah land crossing on the Egyptian side, on its way to the Israeli Al-Auja crossing for inspection before entering the Palestinian side of the Rafah land crossing in the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Al-Arish Airport in North Sinai received 7 new planes carrying 120 tons of aid, including food supplies, electric generators, and medicines, bringing the total number of planes that arrived at the airport to 46 planes.
Khaled Zayed, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent branch in North Sinai, said that the airport received two planes from Morocco carrying 25 tons of various aid.
He added in press statements that the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai is unloading the contents of the two planes and transporting them to the warehouses in the city of Al-Arish, in preparation for their entry into the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian government began preparing a field hospital in the city of Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai Governorate to receive the injured coming from the Gaza Strip, according to a statement from the Sheikh Zuweid City Council.
The statement stated that the hospital will be adjacent to Sheikh Zuwayed Central Hospital, while the city hospital will be provided with medical equipment for operations and critical care, provided that it will be provided with the necessary medical teams if the injured are allowed to enter from the Gaza Strip to receive treatment in Egypt.
Mohamed ElBaradei, former Vice President of Egypt, sent a message to Arab kings and presidents, in which he said that helplessness should not be an option in the face of what the Gaza Strip is exposed to, and that there are many measures that they can take at the political, diplomatic, economic, and commercial levels with Israel and its supporters.
He wrote on the “X” website: “The whole world knows that the civilians of Gaza are currently being subjected to what resembles genocide and other war crimes. Everyone with a living conscience is in great pain as they see collective punishment against the people of Gaza.”
He added: “I believe that everyone in our region, without exception, believes that it is a moral and humanitarian duty before a political one for you to react to what is happening to save what can be saved, and not to stand by and watch.”
The Egyptian Civil Democratic Movement demanded that the Rafah crossing be opened for the entry of aid under the auspices of the United Nations and the Red Cross, that the occupation army be prevented from targeting them, and that the Israeli occupation ambassador be expelled from Egypt.
The movement, which includes 12 opposition parties, identified five demands that it called on the Egyptian authorities to implement immediately, including withdrawing the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv, granting Egyptians the freedom to demonstrate peacefully in all squares and universities without restrictions in support of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights, most important of which is the establishment of an independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, and summoning Urgently address the ambassadors of the United States and the European Union to Egypt and inform them of the rejection of the Egyptian government and people for their blind bias towards the Zionist entity and their condoning of the genocide of Palestinians, which makes them accomplices in the heinous war crimes committed by the Zionist enemy army.
She stressed that her demands came in light of the escalation of the barbaric massacres of the Zionist occupation army against the Palestinian people and the number of Palestinian martyrs approaching 6 thousand, including more than two thousand children and more than a thousand women, and with the continuation of the barbaric and barbaric Zionist siege of our people in Gaza sponsored by Western governments, and the withdrawal of Hospitals and bakeries are out of service, and Arab countries led by the United States refuse to even demand an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.
Palestinian students
The “Our Destiny is One” campaign called on the Egyptian government to exempt Palestinian students at various Egyptian universities from paying tuition fees in light of the catastrophic circumstances that befell their families and loved ones inside Palestine as a result of the brutal Israeli attack.
She said in a statement that she had contacted some Palestinian students studying at the Alexandria College of Medicine who confirmed that they had accumulated expenses and tuition fees after their communication with their families had been interrupted as a result of the Zionist bombing and they had lost their financial resources.
The students reported that their number in the faculties of Alexandria University is estimated at more than 300 male and female students, including about 150 in the Alexandria Faculty of Medicine.
The students stated that the annual student fees are 3,500 US dollars, and that all students will not be able to pay these fees, in addition to the presence of old installments that are late for some of them, in addition to the burdens of living.
“Our Destiny is One,” a campaign launched in November 2017 to discuss health issues and participate in developing solutions for them, called on the Egyptian government to issue an immediate decision to exempt Palestinian students whose sponsored families live in Palestine from tuition fees and expenses in all Egyptian universities.
She appealed to Egyptian civil society organizations to consider supporting these male and female students out of duty.
War in Sudan: resumption of negotiations under American-Saudi mediation
Negotiations between the army and paramilitaries at war for more than six months in Sudan will resume under American-Saudi mediation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane announced on Wednesday.
Since April 15, the conflict has left more than 9,000 dead, according to a very underestimated UN report, and 5.6 million displaced people and refugees. Various attempts at mediation, mainly those already organized in Jeddah , have continued to fail, only allowing brief truces to be achieved.
"At the invitation of Saudi Arabia and the United States to resume negotiations with the FSR militia rebels, and because we believe that negotiations are a means that could help end the war, we "We accepted the invitation to Jeddah ," said a statement issued by the Sudanese army.
“The resumption of negotiations does not mean an end to the battle” , however, specifies the text.
The paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (FSR) have not yet announced their position.
These talks, which were suspended in June, will focus on "a ceasefire, unhindered access of humanitarian aid" to Sudan and "other confidence-building measures ", a senior official told journalists. State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Very active on this issue, the United States has increased contacts to ensure this resumption of talks and the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken finalized the terms during a trip last week to Saudi Arabia, according to another official. American.
Representatives of the Igad countries, made up of Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and South Sudan, will join the discussions in Jeddah on behalf of the African Union, according to the same source.
The objective is to ensure that these talks can ultimately lead to a complete cessation of hostilities.
In the even longer term, the United States is encouraging the creation of a “civil front” in Sudan to ensure a democratic transition.
But the Jeddah talks "will not address broader political issues," one of the US officials said.
“There is no acceptable military solution and we urge the Sudanese army and the RSF to approach these discussions in a constructive spirit ,” the same source said.
“Humanitarian nightmare”
As the conflict bogs down and the humanitarian situation deteriorates, both sides have privately expressed their willingness to resume talks.
They "are feeling the effects of sustained fighting and, frankly, the humanitarian situation has continued to deteriorate, putting pressure on them," said one of the American officials.
The war in Sudan - which has taken an ethnic turn in Darfur (west) where the UN is investigating a possible _"genocide"_-- is "one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history" , according to the United Nations.
Today, out of 48 million Sudanese, more than half need humanitarian aid to survive, humanitarian aid workers constantly repeat who denounce the obstacles to movement and supplies on the part of the Sudanese authorities but also the lack of commitment from international donors who only finance a quarter of their needs.
“For six months, civilians have experienced no break from the bloodshed and terror,” Martin Griffiths, the head of United Nations humanitarian aid, recently declared.
According to the UN , "the number of families suffering from hunger has almost doubled" over the past year and "700,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition."
According to a projection from the American Johns Hopkins University, “at least 10,000 children under the age of five could die by the end of 2023”.
In addition, millions of children are exposed to cholera, dengue fever, measles and malaria, while 70% of hospitals in conflict zones are out of service.
With more than 7.1 million internally displaced people – including 4.5 million since the start of the conflict – Sudan now has the largest number of displaced people in the world, reports the UN.