CAIRO: Tighter security measures by customs authorities at Cairo International Airport have helped thwart several smuggling attempts, officials said.
Separate attempts to smuggle memory cards, drugs and swords into Egypt were foiled at terminal three in recent days.
Legal measures are being taken against the passengers accused of violating Egyptian laws and regulations.
Two Arab passengers who arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa were caught trying to smuggle in thousands of memory cards hidden in the pockets of their dresses.
A manual search revealed that the passengers were carrying 2,500 and 3,300 memory cards separately.
In another case, 51 strips of Tramadol — containing 510 tablets — were seized from a foreign passenger of Egyptian origin who arrived on an Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna.
Tramadol is an opioid and painkiller commonly used by addicts.
An Egyptian was arrested with four strips of Tramadol containing 40 tablets as well as four plastic packages containing 40 effervescent tablets of the same drug.
The passenger had arrived from Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Also at the airport, an Asian passenger arriving from Beijing on an Egyptian Airlines flight was found to be in possession of six swords with sharp metal blades.
Possession of the weapons is prohibited according to Law No. 394 of 1954 and its amendments.
Separately, customs officers at Cairo International Airport earlier foiled attempts to smuggle drug tablets, bladed weapons, antique coins, cigarettes and ophthalmology tools and supplies into Egypt.
Customs authorities last month said they thwarted multiple attempts to smuggle gold into the country.
In April, customs officers at Hurghada International Airport foiled an attempt to smuggle in Tramadol tablets in breach of Egyptian anti-narcotics laws.
Cairo airport customs foil trafficking of drugs, swords
https://arab.news/ruxhg
Cairo airport customs foil trafficking of drugs, swords
- Legal measures are being taken against the passengers accused of violating Egyptian laws and regulations
- Two Arab passengers who arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa were caught trying to smuggle in thousands of memory cards
Yemen’s Houthis say retaliation for Israel port strike ‘inevitable’
DUBAI: The leader of Yemen’s Houthis said Thursday that retaliation for an Israeli strike on a port under the control of the Iran-backed militants was inevitable.
The response to the July 20 attack that targeted fuel storage tanks in Hodeida harbor is “inevitable and will come,” Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said in a televised speech, adding that the battle with Israel was “at its zenith.”
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said Thursday that retaliation for an Israeli strike on a port under the control of the Iran-backed militants was inevitable. (AFP/File)
The Israeli military orders another mass evacuation in southern Gaza
- Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they had fought earlier battles against Hamas
- Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis with Israeli restrictions on aid and ongoing fighting limiting access to crucial medical, food and other supplies
KHAN YOUNIS: The Israeli military has ordered another mass evacuation in large areas around Khan Younis in southern Gaza, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian rocket fire.
Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, suffered widespread destruction during air and ground operations earlier this year.
Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they had fought earlier battles against Hamas and other militants since the start of the 10-month-old war.
Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis with Israeli restrictions on aid and ongoing fighting limiting access to crucial medical, food and other supplies. The Health Ministry says the death toll in the territory is nearing 40,000.
Regional tensions have soared since Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed July 31 in Iran by a presumed Israeli strike. Retaliation has been expected. French President Emmanuel Macron beseeched Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call to do everything in his power to avoid a new military escalation that he said would do lasting damage to regional stability.
World leaders have been pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, and United States President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday about their hopes for a deal calming tensions in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.
Netanyahu ‘sorry’ October 7 attack occurred
- “Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened” he said
- The right-wing leader is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has long billed himself as a staunch protector of Israel’s security
WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Thursday that he was “sorry” that Hamas was able to carry out its October 7 attack, without explicitly taking responsibility.
Netanyahu, who has resisted making an apology for security failures over Israel’s worst-ever attack and focused on destroying Hamas, was asked if he would apologize during an interview with Time magazine.
“Apologize?” he was quoted as replying.
“Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened. And you always look back and you say, ‘Could we have done things that would have prevented it?’” he said.
The right-wing leader is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has long billed himself as a staunch protector of Israel’s security.
Shortly after the October 7 attack, Netanyahu posted on social media that intelligence services had failed to anticipate the Hamas operation and warn him.
He deleted and apologized for that post after numerous Israelis accused him of deflecting blame and jeopardizing national unity.
In the interview, Time asked Netanyahu what his message would be to a political rival who presided over the country’s worst security failure.
Netanyahu replied that it depended on whether the leader could lead Israel “to victory.”
“Can they assure that the postwar situation will be one of peace and security? If the answer is yes, they should stay in power.”
Hamas on October 7 carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. A total of 1,198 people died, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,677 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Iran says Hamas leader’s killing a costly ‘strategic mistake’ by Israel
- Although Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death, Iran has vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge
Jeddah: Israel committed a costly “strategic mistake” with its killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, Iran’s acting foreign minister told AFP in an interview on Thursday.
“The act that the Zionists carried out in Tehran was a strategic mistake because it will cost them gravely,” Ali Bagheri said one day after attending an extraordinary session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.
Although Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death, Iran has vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge.
Bagheri accused Israel of wanting “to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries,” while asserting it was not in a position to fight Iran.
“The Zionists are in no position to start a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
“They neither have the capacity nor the strength.”
The meeting on Wednesday of foreign ministers from the 57-member OIC produced a declaration holding Israel “fully responsible” for the “heinous” killing of Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar and was a major player in talks to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also pledged to retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing and that of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.
Israel kills 25 Palestinians in Gaza airstrikes amid fears of wider war
- Israeli airstrikes hit a cluster of houses in central Gaza’s Al-Bureij camp, killing at least 15 people
- Israeli aircraft also bombed a house in the heart of Gaza City in the north, killing five Palestinians
CAIRO: Israeli forces stepped up strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 25 people, Palestinian medics said, in further battle with Hamas-led militants as Israel braced for potential wider war in the region.
Israeli airstrikes hit a cluster of houses in central Gaza’s Al-Bureij camp, killing at least 15 people, and the nearby Al-Nuseirat camp, killed four, medics said. Nuseirat and Bureij are among the densely populated enclave’s eight historic camps and seen by Israel as strongholds of armed militants.
Israeli aircraft also bombed a house in the heart of Gaza City in the north, killing five Palestinians, while another airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed one person and wounded others, according to medics.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were firing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating across Gaza, causing deaths and injuries among them.
Israel’s military said it had struck dozens of military targets across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including rocket launching pads.
Hamas-led militants set off the Gaza war on Oct. 7 last year with a shock, cross-border rampage into Israeli communities, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and seizing some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, at least 39,699 Palestinians have been killed, including 22 within the past 24 hours, and 91,722 injured in Israel’s devastating air and ground war in Gaza, the Gaza health ministry said in an update on Thursday.
The ministry in the Hamas-run territory does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death lists.
As Gaza’s war churns on, Israel has been battening down for another attack expected in the coming days following vows from Iran and its Lebanon proxy Hezbollah to retaliate for the assassinations last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
A relatively contained conflict between Israel and Hezbollah along its northern border, a spillover from the Gaza fighting, now threatens to spiral into an all-out regional war.
More burials in Gaza
On Thursday dozens of Palestinians rushed into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to bid farewell to slain relatives before carrying them away for burials.
Reuters footage showed relatives moving out the bodies of their loved ones in plastic bags with names written on them, and holding special prayers before the funerals.
The Israeli military renewed evacuation orders to Palestinian residents in several districts in eastern Khan Younis, saying it would act forcefully against militants who had unleashed rockets from those areas.
The army posted the evacuation order on X, and residents said they had received text and audio messages.
On Thursday, the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a US-based, non-governmental humanitarian agency, said that a Palestinian staff member, Nadi Sallout, had been killed while apparently off duty on Wednesday near Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. The WCK said it was seeking further details.
The Israeli military said it did not know of any such incident, adding that it had been in contact with WCK.
In April, seven WCK employees were killed in an Israeli airstrike, spurring it to suspend operations for nearly a month.
Israel said then its inquiries had found serious errors and breaches of procedure by its military, and that two senior officers had been dismissed and senior commanders reprimanded.
