{"id":18706,"date":"2024-02-15T17:33:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T15:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=18706"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:04:16","slug":"newsletter-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/newsletter-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Egypt Building a Buffer Security Zone to Receive Palestinians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Buffer Security Zone to Receive Palestinians<\/h3>\n

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights revealed that the Egyptian authorities have begun building a buffer security zone surrounded by walls to receive refugees from Gaza.<\/p>\n

The foundation said, based on information from an informed source, that the construction work currently under way in eastern Sinai is to establish an isolated security zone along the border with the Gaza Strip, aimed at receiving refugees from Gaza in the event of a mass displacement from Rafah.<\/p>\n

Two local contractors told the foundation that “the construction work, subcontracted to local companies on behalf of the Sons of Sinai company for construction and building, owned by businessman Ibrahim El-Argany, who is close to the authorities, aims to establish an area surrounded by walls 7 metres high, after removing the rubble of the homes of the original inhabitants that were destroyed during the war on ‘terrorism’ and preparing and levelling the soil, with this work to be completed in the shortest possible time, not exceeding ten days”.<\/p>\n

“Al-Qahera News” reported on Monday evening that Cairo is following the situation in the Palestinian city of Rafah and is “ready to deal with all scenarios”, citing an unnamed high-level source, amid continued Israeli escalation in Rafah, which borders Egypt.<\/p>\n

El-Argany owns the company “Hala”, which is responsible for receiving money from Palestinians in Gaza in exchange for allowing them to leave the Strip.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> Who Holds the Keys to the Rafah Crossing?… War Profiteers Exploit Those Stranded in Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n

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Tantawy’s Appeal Set for Next May<\/h3>\n

The defence team of politician and former head of the Karama Party, Ahmed Tantawy, filed a complaint with the attorney general of the East Cairo Prosecution, protesting against the Matariya prosecution’s refusal to allow him to appeal the ruling sentencing him and 22 members of his campaign to one year in prison with suspension of the sentence, in case No. 16336 of 2023, Matariya misdemeanours, known in the media as the popular endorsements case. Tantawy’s defence managed to pay the bail amount and file the appeal, and the court set the session of 25 May for the appeal against the ruling against Tantawy, and 4 March to consider the appeal of the other, detained defendants.<\/p>\n

The case of forging the presidential endorsements concerns election endorsements, documents that give candidates the right to run in the presidential election. Under Egyptian law, each candidate must collect 25,000 endorsements from at least 15 governorates, and the endorsements must be issued by the official real estate registration offices.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> Ahmed Tantawy: The Authorities Do Not Want Serious Elections and the People Are Capable of Change (Interview)<\/a><\/p>\n

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AFTE: Metro Student’s Detention Renewed for 45 Days Pending Investigation<\/h3>\n

The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression said the criminal court decided to renew the detention of student Ayman Abdel Halim El-Derdiry for 45 days pending investigations in case No. 508 of 2023, Supreme State Security. He was arrested last May at the Saray El-Qubba metro station after police stopped him and searched his mobile phone; the prosecution then charged him with offences including joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and data, and using an internet account to commit a crime.<\/p>\n

This is the third time the prosecution has decided to renew the metro student’s pretrial detention for 45 days pending investigations; it had previously been renewed twice in connection with the case, in December and November.<\/p>\n

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EIPR Condemns the Suspension of the BBC’s Cairo Correspondent<\/h3>\n

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights condemned the decision of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to suspend its Cairo correspondent, Sally Nabil, from work and refer her to a disciplinary investigation, on the grounds of violating the corporation’s policy on the use of social media and bias against the Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the initiative, as the correspondent’s legal representative, said that suspending and questioning the journalist for the second time in a few months continues a series of punitive measures against her, amid “McCarthyist measures” the corporation has recently been taking against its Arab journalists in response to pressure from campaigns directed by pro-occupation organisations aimed at intimidating them and influencing their coverage of the genocidal war under way in Gaza since 7 October.<\/p>\n

The initiative warned that the continued punitive measures against the journalist raise clear suspicions of retaliatory motives among BBC managers in London, because of her legitimate union activity protected under Egyptian, British and international law. Sally, who joined the BBC more than ten years ago, played a leading role as a member of the committee representing staff at the BBC’s Cairo office in negotiating with management in London in defence of her colleagues’ financial rights, given the British corporation’s racist policies of pay discrimination against them compared with their colleagues in other offices.<\/p>\n

Journalists at the Cairo office organised three strikes last year to demand pay equality with their colleagues, before the crisis ended last September with negotiations concluded by the head of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, with the World Service management, in which the two sides reached a consensual agreement on the pay of journalists and staff at the corporation’s Cairo office.<\/p>\n

The corporation’s accusations against the Egyptian journalist drew criticism from rights and media organisations, which considered that the BBC is violating freedom of expression and journalistic professionalism. Sally Nabil defended herself in a tweet, saying she had not broken any rules and that she works objectively and impartially.<\/p>\n

For its part, the BBC said it is investigating the case and that it follows its media and social principles with the utmost seriousness. It added that it will take the necessary measures if it finds any violations, including disciplinary penalties.<\/p>\n

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Sisi: I Agreed With the Brazilian President on the Need for a Ceasefire in Gaza<\/h3>\n

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said he agreed with Brazilian President Lula da Silva on the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of hostages, the entry of aid in the largest possible volume and the preservation of civilian lives, stressing the importance of a political solution by launching the post-war phase and declaring the establishment of the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.<\/p>\n

During his speech at the joint press conference with his Brazilian counterpart today, Thursday, at the Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo, President El-Sisi expressed his appreciation for President Lula da Silva personally, saying: “Appreciation and respect to you personally; you are a great figure valued by the Brazilian people, who gave you a third presidential term as an inspiring figure for Brazilians and the world”.<\/p>\n

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Erdogan in Cairo for the First Time Since 2012<\/h3>\n

Cairo hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday, Wednesday, on his first visit to Egypt since 2012, opening a new chapter in relations between the two countries. He held bilateral talks with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, the war on Gaza and other regional issues.<\/p>\n

The two sides affirmed their determination to raise trade exchange to USD 15 billion in the next few years, from USD 6.6 billion at the end of 2023, compared with USD 7.8 billion in 2022, a decrease of 15.7%, according to the latest data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.<\/p>\n

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Power Cuts Continue in Ramadan… No Set Date to Stop Load Shedding<\/h3>\n

The Egyptian government is continuing load shedding and power cuts in all the country’s governorates, according to the specialised platform “Attaqa<\/a>“, which covers electricity and energy news, as part of its plan to reduce consumption rates in order to save gas and export it abroad to provide hard currency. According to exclusive statements from informed government sources to the platform, there is no set date to stop the load-shedding plan, because of the lack of the quantities of gas and diesel power plants need to run without interruption.<\/p>\n

The government is directing the surplus gas resulting from electricity rationing to liquefaction plants in order to export it abroad and provide hard currency, to overcome the financial crisis the country is suffering. The sources confirmed in statements to the Attaqa platform that increasing liquefied gas exports through the load-shedding plan is one of the government’s priorities, to compensate for the shortfall in local production.<\/p>\n

Egypt’s gas production fell by 11.38 billion cubic metres year on year in the first 11 months of last year, as Cairo’s total natural gas production fell to 50.04 billion cubic metres from January to the end of November 2023, compared with 61.42 billion cubic metres in the same period of 2022. Egypt’s LNG exports also fell by 64% year on year in the first 40 days of this year, despite the recent increase in exports this February, reaching only 270,000 tonnes, all of which went to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Egypt saw the largest annual decline in LNG exports in 2023, a drop of almost 50%, to 3.6 million metric tonnes according to “OPEC” estimates, down 51.3% from 2022 exports, which had achieved a record, the highest in a whole decade, of 7.4 million tonnes.<\/p>\n

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The UN and the US Warn Against Invading Rafah<\/h3>\n

UN relief chief Martin Griffiths warned that an Israeli military invasion of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, could “lead to a slaughter” in the city, which is crowded with more than a million displaced people, stressing that military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter and could also bring the already fragile relief operation to the brink of its end.<\/p>\n

At the same time, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the time is not right for a ground operation in the city of Rafah before a corridor for civilians is secured, adding at a press conference yesterday that the United States is working to release the hostages in the Gaza Strip and reach an extended truce to get them out. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the United States is reviewing reports that Israeli occupation forces have harmed civilians in their war in Gaza, relying on a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring that countries receiving US weapons comply with international humanitarian law in their military operations.<\/p>\n

This comes as the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said the toll of Palestinians killed in the ongoing war in the Strip has risen to 28,473 killed and 68,146 injured since 7 October, including 133 martyrs and 162 injured in 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> The Harvest of Lives Begins in Rafah: The Occupation Is Indifferent to Threatening Egypt’s Security<\/a><\/p>\n

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South Africa Asks the ICJ to Consider the Occupation’s Attack on Rafah<\/h3>\n

South African presidency officials said in a statement yesterday, Wednesday, that it had submitted a request to the International Court of Justice to consider whether the Israeli occupation authority’s plan to expand its offensive on the Gaza Strip to include the city of Rafah requires additional emergency measures to protect Palestinians’ rights.<\/p>\n

In a request submitted to the court on Monday, 12 February, the South African government expressed grave concern that the unprecedented military offensive on Rafah, as announced by the occupation, has already led to large-scale killing, harm and destruction and will lead to more, adding that this is a serious and irreparable breach of the Genocide Convention and of the court’s order of 26 January.<\/p>\n

In response, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan said he is deeply concerned about the possible ground incursion of Israeli forces into Rafah, and stressed in a post on the “X” platform that his office continues to conduct an investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine, considering the matter extremely urgent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rights group says Egypt is building a walled zone near Gaza for refugees, as the BBC suspends its Cairo correspondent and power cuts continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[412],"tags":[20169,20170,20173,18211,20172,20168,20167,20046,20171,20174],"kateb":[710],"class_list":["post-18706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-en","tag-ahmed-tantawy-appeal","tag-bbc-sally-nabil-suspension","tag-egypt-lng-exports-decline","tag-egypt-load-shedding","tag-erdogan-cairo-visit","tag-ibrahim-el-argany","tag-sinai-buffer-zone","tag-sinai-foundation-for-human-rights","tag-sisi-lula-meeting","tag-south-africa-icj-rafah-request","kateb-zawia3-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/\u0646\u0633\u062e\u0629-\u0645\u0646-\u0646\u0634\u0631\u0629-\u0632\u0627\u0648\u064a\u0629-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18707,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18706\/revisions\/18707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18706"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=18706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}