Strong voter turnout in Egyptian presidential election
Strong voter turnout in Egyptian presidential election/node/2423266/middle-east
Strong voter turnout in Egyptian presidential election
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Egyptian voters crowd to cast their votes for the presidential elections at a polling station, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. (AP)
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A motorist drives a pickup truck carrying an electoral sign by a private retailer endorsing incumbent Egyptian President and independent presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi along the main roundabout in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on December 1, 2023. (AFP)
Strong voter turnout in Egyptian presidential election
Prime minister calls on citizens to exercise their constitutional right
Democratic process hailed as step toward political pluralism
Updated 10 December 2023
Gobran Mohamed
CAIRO: Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly called on voters to take part in the presidential election to help convey the stability of the state, after casting his own vote in the poll on Sunday.
Egyptians began voting on Sunday in an election which is set to hand Abdel Fattah El-Sisi a third term in power.
The prime minister highlighted the importance of the country’s people exercising their constitutional right.
There was a large turnout at polling stations in all governorates, according to the National Elections Authority.
El-Sisi is competing against three other candidates: Abdel-Sanad Yamama, head of the Wafd Party, the oldest free political group in the country; Hazem Omar, head of the Republican People’s Party; and Farid Zahran, head of the Social Democratic Party.
The president traveled to cast his vote while ministers, members of the House of Representatives, and the Senate, also voted.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that participating in the election was a national duty and responsibility after casting his vote.
Justice Minister Omar Marwan said he was delighted at the early turnout at the polling stations, within hours of their opening.
Marwan, who was speaking after casting his vote, stressed the importance of the people’s positive and active participation in the electoral process.
People had begun arriving at the election committees in the Cairo Governorate about an hour before the polls opened.
The National Elections Authority said that it had received several complaints due to crowding.
Arrangements were made with the authorities to solve the problem and make the voting process easier, it added.
Voting, which is taking place from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., is spread over three days, with results due to be announced on Dec. 18.
The government’s media body has called the election a step toward political pluralism.
“I will vote for El-Sisi, of course. I love him,” said Nabia Ahmed, a 65-year-old mother of four who was voting in Bahr Al-Azam Street in Giza.
“I always vote for presidents. I am voting because I want security for my children.”
A school named after a deceased soldier — and in which pictures of victims of attacks were displayed — was being used as a polling station in El-Arish in northern Sinai, where the military has extended its control after battling militants.
Leila Awad, a local Education Ministry official who was part of a large group of civil servants which had attended the site to vote, said that El-Sisi had “secured our area for us. We have seen the most blood spilled. The least we can do is vote for him.”
Greek-flagged ship on fire since August 23 after Houthi attack, EU naval mission says
Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, said on Thursday that they attacked the Sounion in the Red Sea
The Greek-flagged tanker carries 150,000 tonnes of crude oil which poses an environmental hazard
Updated 31 sec ago
Reuters
The Greek-flagged ship Sounion has been on fire since Aug. 23 after an attack by Yemen’s Houthis with no obvious signs of an oil spill, EU Red Sea naval mission Aspides said in a post on X on Monday. The EU mission published photos dated Sunday showing fire and smoke coming out of the vessel’s main deck. Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, said on Thursday that they attacked the Sounion oil tanker in the Red Sea. The Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Fires were observed on at least five locations on the main deck of the vessel, Aspides said. Additionally, part of the superstructure is on fire too. Satellite image captured by European Space Agency’s Copernicus Satellite 2 showed smoke visible at sea in the vicinity where Sounion was last detected. Reuters was able to locate the image from matching the last location for MV Sounion seen from LSEG ship tracker. Aspides said on Thursday that the oil tanker carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil poses an environmental hazard.
Israel’s economy is struggling. Economists say ending the war would help
Country’s leaders grind ahead with an offensive in Gaza that shows no signs of ending and threatens to escalate into a wider conflict
Total cost of the war could amount to $120 billion, or 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product
Updated 20 min 25 sec ago
AP
JERUSALEM: In Jerusalem’s Old City, nearly all souvenir shops are closed. In Haifa’s flea market, forlorn merchants polish their wares on empty streets. Airlines are canceling flights, businesses are failing and luxury hotels are half empty.
Nearly 11 months into the war with Hamas, Israel’s economy is struggling as the country’s leaders grind ahead with an offensive in Gaza that shows no signs of ending and threatens to escalate into a wider conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to allay concerns by saying the economic damage is only temporary. But the bloodiest, most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas has hurt thousands of small businesses and compromised international trust in an economy once thought of as an entrepreneurial dynamo. Some leading economists say a ceasefire is the best way to stop the damage.
“The economy right now is under huge uncertainty, and it’s related to the security situation — how long the war will go on, what the intensity will be and the question of whether there will be further escalation,” said Karnit Flug, Israel’s former central bank chief who is now the vice president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
The war has inflicted a far heavier toll on Gaza’s already broken economy, displacing 90 percent of the population and leaving the vast majority of the workforce unemployed. All banks in the territory have shut. The fighting has killed more than 40,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials in the Hamas-run territory. Their count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The fighting in Gaza and daily attacks from Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have also driven tens of thousands of people from their homes along Israel’s northern and southern borders and caused large-scale damage.
The Israeli economy has recovered from previous shocks, including shorter wars with Hamas. But this longer conflict has created a bigger strain, including the cost of rebuilding, compensating families of victims and reserve soldiers, and vast military spending.
The drawn-out nature of the fighting and the threat of further escalation with Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, have an especially harsh impact on tourism. Though tourism is not a major driver of the economy, the damage has hurt thousands of workers and small businesses.
“The hardest thing is that we don’t know when the war will end,” said Israeli tour guide Daniel Jacob, whose family is living off savings. “We need to finish the war before this year’s end. If it’s another half a year, I don’t know how long we’re going to make it.”
Jacob, 45, returned in April from six months of duty as a reserve soldier to find out that business had dried up. He was forced to shutter the tourism company he spent two decades developing. His only income is aid from the government, which pays him half his prewar salary every few months.
Meir Sabag, a Haifa antiques dealer whose shop sat empty, said business is worse now than during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On a recent weekday, the formerly bustling port of Haifa, a major hub of Israeli import-export where massive container ships would often stop, was still.
With Yemen’s Houthi rebel group endangering ships passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal, many long-haul ships have stopped using Israeli ports as hubs, said a port official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was sharing internal information.
He said Israeli ports saw a 16 percent percent drop in shipping in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2023.
The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage.
Renewed US-led ceasefire efforts appear to be sputtering, and Iran and Hezbollah have threatened to avenge the recent assassinations of top militant leaders, raising the threat of a wider regional war. These fears have prompted major airlines, including Delta, United and Lufthansa, to suspend flights in and out of Israel.
Jacob Sheinin, an Israeli economist with decades of experience advising Israeli premiers and government ministries, said the total cost of the war could amount to $120 billion, or 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic activity.
Of all 38 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Israel’s economy underwent the biggest slowdown from April to June, the organization reported Thursday. The Israeli GDP was projected to grow 3 percent in 2024. The Bank of Israel now predicts a growth rate of 1.5 percent — and that’s if the war ends this year.
Fitch downgraded Israel’s rating from A-plus to A earlier this month, following similar downgrades by S&P and Moody’s. The downgrading could raise the government’s borrowing costs.
“In our view, the conflict in Gaza could last well into 2025,” Fitch warned in its rating note, which cited the possibility of “significant additional military spending, destruction of infrastructure and more sustained damage to economic activity and investment.”
In another worrying sign, the Finance Ministry this month said the country’s deficit over the last 12 months has risen to over 8 percent of GDP, far exceeding the 6.6 percent deficit-to-GDP ratio the ministry projected for 2024. In 2023, Israel ‘s budget deficit was roughly 4 percent of its GDP.
The downgrade and the deficit have increased pressure on the Israeli government to end the war and reduce the deficit — something that would require unpopular decisions such as raising taxes or cutting spending.
But Netanyahu needs to keep his coalition afloat, and his hardline finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, wants the war to continue until Hamas is decimated.
Flug, the former central bank chief, said the situation is unsustainable and that the coalition will have to cut back on spending, such as unpopular subsidies to ultra-Orthodox schools that are perceived by the broader public as wasteful.
“The public will have hard time accepting it if the government does not show that the severity of the situation forces them to give up some of the things that are dear to them,” Flug said.
Smotrich said Israel’s economy “is strong” and vowed to pass a “responsible budget that will continue to support all the needs of the war, while maintaining fiscal frameworks and promoting growth engines.”
The unemployment rate has dipped below pre-war levels, Sheinin said, to 3.4 percent in July compared with 3.6 percent in July of last year. But when taking into account Israelis forced out of the labor market, the figure rises to 4.8 percent, a figure that would still be considered low in most countries.
Meanwhile, many small businesses have closed because their owners and employees were called up for reserve military duty. Others are struggling amid the broader slowdown.
Israeli business information company CofaceBDI reports that some 46,000 businesses have closed since the start of the war — 75 percent of them small businesses.
Even Jerusalem’s iconic American Colony hotel, a popular stop for politicians, diplomats and movie stars, has laid off workers and is mulling pay cuts, said Jeremy Berkovitz, who represents the owners.
“We did consider at one point closing for a few months,” said Berkovitz “but of course that would mean sacking all the staff. It would have meant letting the gardens, which we’ve developed over 120 years, go fallow.”
Sheinin said the best way to help the economy bounce back would be to end the war.
“But,” he cautioned. “If we are stubborn and continue this war, we will not recover.”
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City kill five Palestinians, Wafa says
Updated 26 August 2024
Reuters
CAIRO: Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians in Gaza City early on Monday, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, which also reported multiple injuries in the attack.
The strike targeted a house near the Patient’s Friends Hospital in the western part of Gaza City, Wafa said, citing medical sources.
Israeli military officials did not immediately comment on the strikes.
What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?
Unaccompanied minors face hunger and exploitation as aid agencies struggle to meet growing humanitarian needs
Orphaned children “are suffering from loneliness, emotional deprivation and a lack of care,” mental health specialists warn
Updated 26 August 2024
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Terrorized, grieving, starved, and homeless, thousands of unaccompanied children in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip are enduring unimaginable horrors amid a dire humanitarian crisis — all without the care and protection of a parent or guardian.
UN Women estimated in April that Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which began on Oct. 7 in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, had left at least 19,000 children without one or both parents.
Baby boy Omar Al-Qadiri, who lost his family in the Israeli attack on the Et-Tabiin School in Gaza City, is treated at Kemal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on Aug. 19, 2024. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
The UK-based charity Oxfam has described the war in Gaza as “one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century,” with a death toll now in excess of 40,170 — among them at least 25,000 women and children, according to Gaza’s health authority.
In February, the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, declared the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”
Children in Gaza have suffered life-changing injuries under Israel’s bombardment. Many lack access to medical care and suffer malnutrition, psychological distress, and infectious diseases, including polio, hepatitis A, and various skin conditions
BabyAsmaa Ajour, who lost her entire family in an Israeli army attack on Saraya crossroads, is treated for injuries at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
UNICEF said in June that one in three children in Gaza is acutely malnourished, warning that at least 3,000 of them in the enclave’s south are at risk of dying from starvation.
“Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes due to the continued lack of food, nutrition supplies, and the destruction of healthcare services,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
She described the situation as a “senseless, man-made deprivation.”
Meanwhile, the New York-based monitor Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli government of starving civilians as a “method of warfare” — claims the Israeli government has denied.
Palestinian children queue at a water distribution point in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on August 25, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP)
These horrors are all the more terrifying for the thousands of children separated from their caregivers and forced to fend for themselves.
“Children who have lost or been separated from their families are facing unimaginable hardships as they struggle to survive without adult care,” Ahmad Baroudi, media manager for Save the Children’s office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, told Arab News.
INNUMBERS
• 19,000+ Have lost one or both parents.
* 16,480+ Killed in the conflict since Oct. 7.
Sources: UN/MoH/Save the Children
“In many cases, older siblings or extended family members are stepping in to provide what little support they can, often in the most desperate conditions. However, these children are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and neglect, as well as the severe psychological trauma of being alone in such a hostile environment.”
Although humanitarian organizations “are working tirelessly to reach these children, offering emergency shelter, food, and psychosocial support,” Baroudi said the scale of need “far outstrips the resources available.
“The situation is dire, and without immediate and sustained intervention, the survival of these children remains at grave risk.”
Shereen al-Bozom, a Palestinian speech therapist who launched an initiative to treat children suffering from conflict-induced trauma and speech impediments, treats a child at her makeshift clinic in a classroom of the Fakhura school in Gaza Strip on Aug. 14, 2024. (AFP)
There are also many unaccompanied minors held in Israeli jails. The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reports that Israel has detained an unknown number of children from Gaza since Oct. 7, in addition to more than 650 arrested in the West Bank.
Released child detainees say they have been subjected to different methods of torture, including physical and sexual abuse, strip searches, and cruel treatment, like being made to stand in the heat for extended periods, according to Save the Children.
“Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment of children is strictly prohibited under international law,” the charity said in a July statement.
In June, the UN added Israel to its global list of states and armed groups involved in “the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons.”
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were also added to the list.
An injured child is seen at the 'Orphan City' camp established by a charity organization for Palestinian children who lost their entire families as a result of the Israeli army's attacks on July 09, 2024 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
The US-based International Rescue Committee said last week it was concerned that the actual number of unaccompanied minors in Gaza was far higher than current UN estimates.
A UN survey in April found that since Oct. 7, some 41 percent of families in Gaza had been caring for children who were not their own.
While nongovernmental organizations are providing critical services such as food distribution, healthcare, and psychosocial support to minors, Save the Children’s Baroudi said “the scale of the crisis means that many are left without the help they desperately need.
Children and their families are in the line of fire in #Gaza.
Increased attacks, bombings and further forced displacements are putting their lives at risk.
— Save the Children International (@save_children) August 16, 2024
“The limited resources and barriers to access mean that only a fraction of the suffering can be alleviated at this time, leaving countless people, especially children, in life-threatening situations.”
International humanitarian and human rights organizations, along with several governments, have repeatedly called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages.
If a permanent ceasefire is reached soon, Baroudi believes “the future of the orphans who survive will depend on the international community’s commitment to long-term support and reconstruction efforts.
“These children will need comprehensive care that goes beyond immediate survival needs,” he said. “This includes safe and stable housing, continued access to education, healthcare, and mental health services to help them recover from the profound trauma they have endured.”
He added: “Efforts will need to be made to reunite them with any surviving family members or to place them in protective environments where they can receive the care and support they need to rebuild their lives.
“Without sustained international support, these orphans risk falling through the cracks, facing a lifetime of instability and vulnerability.”
Children look for salvageable items in the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2024. (AFP)
Sahar Alhabaj, an occupational therapist at a UK mental health facility, said that unaccompanied and orphaned children in Gaza “are suffering from loneliness, emotional deprivation, and lack of care due to the absence of their families.”
These emotional challenges are aggravated by “their inability to understand deep concepts like death and comprehend the emotions associated with this concept, such as sadness and fear,” she told Arab News.
While those children may be “physically safe” once a permanent ceasefire is reached, Alhabaj said “they might suffer from long-term traumatic stress or personality disorders.”
Audrey McMahon, a child psychiatrist with Medecins Sans Frontieres, warned in June that the “entire population of children and teenagers in Gaza — more than 1 million people — will need mental health support” once the war ends.
Lives of pregnant women and newborns are endangered in Gaza due to the harsh living conditions and lack of access to healthcarehttps://t.co/8qxaD5KOoV
After seeing firsthand the impact of the war on children, she told MSF: “In Palestine, there’s never a ‘post’ in post-traumatic stress syndrome. It’s ongoing trauma, it’s protracted trauma, it’s one war after the other.”
She added: “These children are human beings that have the same right to have a life lived in peace, to have access to good food, to grow healthy. They should have a right to have dreams and hope for the future.
“Children are born where they’re born, and it doesn’t make them belong to any type of group. They are just children.”
Israeli beachgoers try to brush off Hezbollah threat
Jews are not safe anywhere anyway, so we can’t live in constant fear,” Paz told AFP
The cross-border violence has killed hundreds, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands of residents in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel
Updated 26 August 2024
AFP
HAIFA, Israel: Waking at dawn on Sunday to explosions and sirens, Abigail Levy checked the news and quickly understood there had been “an escalation” of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
She stepped outside to find the Israeli port city of Haifa in a “very sad” state after the military announced it had carried out air strikes in Lebanon to thwart a large-scale attack by the Iran-backed militants.
“There was no one outside. Everything was closed, whereas usually there would be a lot of people and activity here,” she said.
The coastal city’s beaches are typically crowded during the summer, but with drones and rockets raining down near the border 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, Israeli authorities on Sunday declared a 48-hour state of emergency.
The Israeli civil defense force, the Home Front Command, ordered the closure of “supervised swimming areas” between Haifa and Nahariya, the northernmost city on the coast.
Red-and-white tape barred access to the beach in Haifa’s Bat Galim neighborhood, depriving vacationers of the chance to cool off in the Mediterranean as temperatures topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Hedva, a 32-year-old student who declined to give her last name, said she did not understand why such measures were necessary since “there are shelters in all the buildings near the beach.”
But the army says these are an insufficient safeguard, asserting that, given Haifa’s proximity to Lebanon, residents must be able to access anti-rocket shelters less than a minute after hearing sirens to avoid the risk of being hit by projectiles and fragments.
Hezbollah began firing on Israel on October 8, one day after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The cross-border violence has killed hundreds, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands of residents in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
On the Lebanese side 605 people have been killed, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities say 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed.
Hezbollah recently released a video threatening the port of Haifa, claiming the footage came from one of its drones.
The city is home to a refinery and large industrial zone, raising residents’ fears of a chemical disaster in the event of such an attack.
In the summer of 2006, during the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the militant group targeted Haifa with rockets, and 15 years earlier Iraqi missiles fired on Haifa during the Gulf War.
Despite this history, 62-year-old Jane Paz said on Sunday she had “not an ounce of fear,” while voicing frustration that her planned day at the beach had been scuttled.
“It makes no sense to close the beach and force people to stay home!” she fumed at a security guard who ordered her and her dog away from the water and onto a nearby promenade.
“If a missile is going to fall, it will fall. Jews are not safe anywhere anyway, so we can’t live in constant fear,” Paz told AFP.
Sitting on a bench, Olga Log staved off her boredom with a beer.
“I come to the seaside every day. Israel is a great nation. We shouldn’t be afraid of missiles,” said the young woman of Russian origin.
“Around four in the morning, I heard a noise, as usual,” she added, referring to the fighter jets and drones that frequently roar over northern Israel these days.
Log learned that the beaches were closed after consulting a Russian-language Israeli news site, but decided to head out anyway.
“I don’t care,” she told AFP before joining some others who ended up venturing onto the sand in defiance of official warnings.
