Egypt’s Sisi calls for European pressure to reach Gaza ceasefire
Sisi affirmed his country’s rejection of Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon against Palestinians
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-sisi called on Wednesday for European pressure to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking during a joint press conference in Cairo with German President Frank-walter Steinmeier, Sisi underlined the importance of piling pressure by the European countries to strike a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
He also affirmed his country’s rejection of Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon against Palestinians.
For months, Egypt, Qatar and the US have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re
fusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.
The Egyptian leader said his talks with his German counterpart also dwelt on a dam project being built by Ethiopia on the Nile River, which Cairo sees an ‘existential threat’ to its water share from the Nile.
Wednesday’s visit by the German president is the first to Egypt in 25 years, according to Egyptian media.
His visit comes as Israel continues a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an October 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
15 Palestinians killed in Gaza
At least 15 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, according to medical sources on Wednesday.
Four people lost their lives and 11 others were injured after a strike targeting a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Public Aid Hospital in northern Gaza said in a statement. Another airstrike hit a home in the same camp, but no information was yet available about casualties.
Eleven people, including eight children and two women, were also killed when an Israeli fighter
jet struck a house in Khuza’a town east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, a medical source told Anadolu.
Israeli forces also detonated several homes in the Zeitoun neighbourhood east of Gaza City, according to witnesses.
2 soldiers killed in copter crash
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven others injured in a helicopter crash in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the military said on Wednesday.
A military statement said a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter
The Egyptian leader said his talks with his German counterpart also dwelt on a dam project being built by Ethiopia on the Nile River, which Cairo sees an ‘existential threat’ to its water share from the Nile
crashed as it was evacuating a soldier seriously wounded in clashes with Palestinian fighters last night.
The army said the helicopter hit the ground while trying to make a landing and was not hit by fire. It, however, said the crash was still under investigation.
Five killed in West Bank
Meanwhile, in the city of Tubas, the occupied northern West Bank, the Israeli army on early Wednesday killed five Palestinians in an airstrike, as the army started an incursion into the city.
In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that after the airstrike, its medical teams transferred five bodies from the Tawheed Mosque in Tubas to the hospital.