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Egypt tests new extension of the Suez Canal

Egypt tests new extension of the Suez Canal
Above, an aerial view of the new extension to the Suez Canal Al-Ferdan, north of Ismailia in northeastern Egypt. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 29 December 2024

Egypt tests new extension of the Suez Canal

Egypt tests new extension of the Suez Canal
  • Two ships used the new extension on Saturday, a statement from the Suez Canal Authority said
  • The new extension is set to boost the canal’s capacity by six to eight vessels a day

CAIRO: Egypt has tested a new 10-kilometer extension to the Suez Canal as it tries to minimize the impact of currents on shipping and increase the key waterway’s capacity.
Two ships used the new extension on Saturday, a statement from the Suez Canal Authority said.
Authority chief Osama Rabie said the development in the canal’s southern region will “enhance navigational safety and reduce the effects of water and air currents on passing ships.”
Vessels navigating the waterway have at times run aground, mostly because of strong winds and sandstorms.
In 2021, giant container ship Ever Given became wedged diagonally in the canal, blocking trade for nearly a week and resulting in delays that cost billions of dollars.
The new extension is set to boost the canal’s capacity by six to eight vessels a day, Rabie said, and it will open after new navigational maps are issued.
In 2015, Egypt undertook an $8-billion expansion to the waterway, followed by several smaller development projects.
The Suez Canal has long been a vital source of foreign currency for Egypt that has been undergoing its worst ever economic crisis.
According to the International Monetary Fund, revenue from the canal has been slashed by up to 70 percent since last year because of attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea.
Before the attacks pushed companies to change routes, the vital passage accounted for around 10 percent of global maritime trade.


Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City as Trump talks peace

Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City as Trump talks peace
Updated 9 sec ago

Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City as Trump talks peace

Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City as Trump talks peace
  • Medics say shelling forced hospitals to close, trapped civilians
  • Israel says military offensive is only way to free hostages
CAIRO: Israeli forces pushed toward the heart of Gaza City on Wednesday, risking the lives of Palestinians who had stayed put in hopes that growing pressure on Israel for a ceasefire would mean they would not lose their homes.
US President Donald Trump met leaders of Muslim countries at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday for talks which focused on an end to the war.
Trump, who earlier condemned moves by a string of countries to put pressure on Israel by recognizing a Palestinian state, said a meeting with Israel would be next.
The Israeli government has urged the population of Gaza City to move south but many people hesitated, citing the lack of security and widespread hunger there. “We moved to the western area near the beach, but many families didn’t have the time, tanks took them by surprise,” said Thaer, a 35-year-old father of one from Tel Al-Hawa.
Airstrikes hit shelter
Israeli forces, which began closing in on the city of more than a million in August, have ignored calls to stop an offensive that the government says aims to destroy the last stronghold of Hamas militants whose 2023 attack on Israel and seizure of hostages triggered the war.
Medics said at least 20 people were killed and many others wounded when Israeli airstrikes hit a shelter housing displaced families near a market in the middle of the city. Two other people were killed in a house nearby, they said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack on the shelter, where footage obtained by Reuters showed people sifting through the rubble.
“We were sleeping in God’s care, there was nothing — they did not inform us, or not even give us a sign — it was a surprise,” said Sami Hajjaj. “There are children and women, around 200 people maybe, six-seven families, this square is full of families,” he said.
In the city’s Tel Al-Hawa suburb tanks entered populated areas trapping people in their homes, while more tanks were seen stationed close to Al-Quds Hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an oxygen station had been damaged.
Tanks have also advanced closer to Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, witnesses and Hamas media said.
On Monday, Palestinian authorities said tank shelling had damaged the Rantissi Hospital and put the nearby Al-Naser eye hospital at risk, forcing them to close. Jordan, which runs a third hospital in the area, said it had moved it further south due to repeated bombardment.
The Israeli military said it would continue to enable the provision of medical services and functioning of health care facilities in Gaza and that staff and patients from Al-Naser and Rantissi had voluntarily evacuated.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Gaza City in northern Gaza, further south over the past few weeks, but many more remain, saying there is nowhere safe for them to go.
Seven people were killed in Nuseirat and near Rafah in Gaza’s south, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which insists its attacks are aimed at ending Hamas rule of the enclave.
Israel has drawn widespread condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, where more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed, according to local health authorities, and famine has spread.
International frustration over the war in Gaza prompted some Israeli and US allies to recognize a Palestinian state this week. Support for the war in Israel has also wavered, with 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, still held by Hamas in Gaza and 465 soldiers killed in combat.
Hamas has acknowledged the death of some of its military leaders but has not disclosed the number of its fighters killed. The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Iran starts rebuilding missile sites hit by Israel, but experts say a key component is missing

Iran starts rebuilding missile sites hit by Israel, but experts say a key component is missing
Updated 55 min 50 sec ago

Iran starts rebuilding missile sites hit by Israel, but experts say a key component is missing

Iran starts rebuilding missile sites hit by Israel, but experts say a key component is missing
  • Iran has begun rebuilding missile-production sites targeted by Israel during its 12-day war in June that’s according to satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press
  • The missiles are one of Iran’s few military deterrents after the war decimated its air defense systems

DUBAI: Iran has begun rebuilding missile-production sites targeted by Israel during its 12-day war in June, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press show, but a key component is likely still missing — the large mixers needed to produce solid fuel for the weapons.
Reconstituting the missile program is crucial for the Islamic Republic, which believes another round of war with Israel may happen. The missiles are one of Iran’s few military deterrents after the war decimated its air defense systems — something that Tehran long has insisted will never be included in negotiations with the West.
Missile experts told AP that obtaining the mixers is a goal for Tehran, particularly as it prepares for possible United Nations sanctions to be reimposed on the country later this month. The sanctions would penalize any development of the missile program, among other measures. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is due to address the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
Known as planetary mixers, the machines feature blades that revolve around a central point, like orbiting planets, and offer better mixing action than other types of equipment. Iran could purchase them from China, where experts and US officials say they’ve purchased missile fuel ingredients and other components in the past.
“If they’re able to reacquire some key things like planetary mixers, then that infrastructure is still there and ready to get rolling again,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who studied Iranian missile sites.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to questions about the country’s efforts to rebuild its missile program.
Israeli war targeted solid-fuel missile sites
Solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster than those using liquid fuel, which must be loaded just before launch. That speed can make the difference between launching a missile and having it destroyed in a launcher — something that happened during the war with Israel.
Iran has solid-fuel missile manufacturing bases at Khojir and Parchin, two sites just outside Tehran, as well as at Shahroud, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) northeast of the capital. Even before the most recent war, all of those sites came under Israeli attack in October 2024 during hostilities between the countries.
Attacks during the war in June appeared aimed at destroying buildings that housed the mixers, which are needed to ensure the missile fuel is evenly combined, according to experts. Other sites struck by Israel included manufacturing facilities that likely could be used to make the mixers.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC taken this month and analyzed by AP show construction at both the Parchin and Shahroud facilities.
At Parchin, mixing buildings appear to be under repair, Lair said, and similar rebuilding is happening at Shahroud involving mixing buildings and other structures.
The speed at which Iran is rebuilding shows the importance Tehran puts on its missile program. Iran’s bombed nuclear sites so far have not seen the same level of activity.
During the war, Iran fired 574 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America, which has a close relationship with the Israeli military. In two exchanges of fire before the war, Iran launched another 330 missiles, the think tank said.
The Israeli military had estimated Iran’s total arsenal at around 2,500 missiles, meaning that over a third of its missiles were fired.
Before the war, Iran was on track to be able to produce more than 200 solid-fuel missiles a month, said Carl Parkin, a summer fellow at the James Martin Center. That drew Israeli strikes to missile-building facilities.
“Israel’s targeting indicates that they believed mixing was a bottleneck in Iran’s missile production,” he said. “If Iran is able to overcome their mixing limitations, they’ll have all the casting capacity that they need to start producing at high volumes again.”
The Israeli military declined to respond to questions over its strategy. Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, recently claimed Tehran now has new missiles with more advanced warheads.
“The 12-day war with Israel has altered some of our priorities,” he said on Aug. 22. “We are now focused on producing military equipment with higher precision and greater operational capabilities.”
Chinese mixers seen at Syria missile site affiliated with Iran
Iran may choose to rely on China to obtain mixers and the chemicals to make solid fuel.
Such chemicals may have caused a massive explosion in April that killed at least 70 people at a port in Iran. Iran still has not explained the blast, which happened as its diplomats met with Americans in Oman over its nuclear program.
Just days after the explosion, the US State Department sanctioned Chinese firms it said provided the Islamic Republic with “ballistic missile propellant ingredients.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard likely supplied a planetary mixer to an underground ballistic missile construction facility in Syria near the town of Masyaf, some 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Damascus, near the Lebanese border. Footage released by the Israeli military months after the September 2024 raid on the facility showed the mixer, which bore a resemblance to others sold online by Chinese firms.
Iran’s president and military officials visited Beijing earlier this month for China’s Victory Day parade. Iran’s government has provided no detailed readout on what Pezeshkian said to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and China’s state-run media offered no indications that Tehran asked for help.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, asked about possibly supplying Tehran mixers and fuel ingredients, told AP that Beijing is “willing to continue leveraging its influence to contribute to peace and stability in the Middle East.”
“China supports Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, security and national dignity,” the ministry said. “At the same time, China is deeply concerned about the continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East.”
Can Kasapoğlu, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said Beijing could supply guidance systems and microprocessors as well for Iran’s ballistic missiles.
“If Iran uses its relationship with China to bolster its disruptive military capabilities, the 12-day war could be a mere speed bump for the Iranian regime, rather than a decisive defeat,” he wrote.
Lair, the analyst, said if Iran restarts its production at prewar levels, the sheer number of missiles produced will make it harder for the Israelis to preemptively destroy them or shoot them down.
“They are clearly very invested in their missile program, and I don’t think that they’re going to negotiate it away, ever,” he said.


Strike on market in Sudan’s El-Fasher kills 15 people

Strike on market in Sudan’s El-Fasher kills 15 people
Updated 24 September 2025

Strike on market in Sudan’s El-Fasher kills 15 people

Strike on market in Sudan’s El-Fasher kills 15 people
  • Local resistance committees called the attack a ‘massacre’ that left 27 dead and wounded, blaming the RSF

PORT SUDAN: A drone strike on a market in Sudan’s besieged city of El-Fasher killed at least 15 people, a medical worker at the local hospital told AFP.
The strike “killed 15 citizens and wounded 12 others, three of them critically,” the medic said.
The local resistance committees, a group of activists who document atrocities by both sides in Sudan’s war, called the attack a “massacre” that killed and wounded a total of 27 people, and accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying it out.


Lebanese village mourns children and father killed in Israeli strike

Lebanese village mourns children and father killed in Israeli strike
Updated 24 September 2025

Lebanese village mourns children and father killed in Israeli strike

Lebanese village mourns children and father killed in Israeli strike
  • Since the ceasefire took effect, Israel has continued to launch near daily airstrikes in southern Lebanon with Israeli officials frequently saying it is targeting Hezbollah militants or infrastructure

BINT JBEIL: A village in southern Lebanon on Tuesday buried five people, including three children and their father, killed in an Israeli strike over the weekend.
Shadi Charara, a car dealer, was killed while driving home to the southern seaside city of Tyre on Sunday with his wife and four children after having lunch at his father-in-law’s house in the town of Bint Jbeil, a few kilometers from the border with Israel.
Sam Bazzi, the children’s maternal grandfather, told The Associated Press the family thought they were safe because they had no affiliation with Hezbollah.
“We’re regular citizens and we don’t belong to any group,” Bazzi said. “And so we thought we had nothing to do with it and we were just living normally, coming and going.”
The family was only a few hundred meters from Bazzi’s house when a motorcycle passed by, and at the same moment, the Israeli drone struck.
It killed Charara, his twin 18-month-old son and daughter Hadi and Silan, 8-year-old daughter Celine, and the motorcyclist, a local man named Mohammed Majed Mroue. Family members said Mroue was Charara’s cousin but had been passing by chance at the time of the strike, not traveling with the family.
The children’s mother, Amani Bazzi, and her oldest daughter, Asil, survived but were seriously wounded. Bazzi, her face bruised and swollen, was carried on a stretcher through the crowd at the funeral of her husband and children.
After Sunday’s strike, the Israeli military said it was targeting a Hezbollah militant, whom it did not name, and that he “operated from within a civilian population.” It acknowledged that civilians were killed and said that it was reviewing the incident.
At the funeral in Bint Jbeil, the coffins were draped in Lebanese flags, and only Lebanese flags were waving in the crowd. At other funerals in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah banners are often on display.
A US-brokered ceasefire halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. That conflict began on Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border, one day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza
Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in September 2024.
Since the ceasefire took effect, Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials frequently say it is targeting Hezbollah militants or infrastructure. Hezbollah has only claimed firing across the border once since the ceasefire, but Israel says the militant group is trying to rebuild its capabilities.
Charara’s sister, Amina, who lives in Dearborn, Michigan, said houses belonging to the family were damaged or destroyed in last year’s war, but they had counted themselves lucky that none of their relatives had been harmed.
“We always said thank God we only lost stones and not human beings,” she said. ““The houses and stones can be rebuilt, but how can my brother return?”
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said after the strike that Shadi Charara and his children were US citizens, while family members told the AP that Charara did not have US citizenship but that his siblings and father live in the United States and are citizens. They said Charara had applied to join them and recently received approval but was still waiting for visas.
A US State Department official declined to comment on “personal details.”
The European Union on Sunday condemned the strike and called for “full respect and implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.”
“Security concerns should be addressed by making full use of the monitoring mechanism established in the framework of the ceasefire agreement,” it said.
Amina Charara said the family in the US had been constantly worried about their relatives in Lebanon.
“My brother was a man who loved life and loved his family. He had nothing to do with politics. He was working to provide for his family,” she said. “What was the fault of the children for Israel to kill them?“


Moroccan PM urges UN to support push for Palestinian statehood

Moroccan PM urges UN to support push for Palestinian statehood
Updated 24 September 2025

Moroccan PM urges UN to support push for Palestinian statehood

Moroccan PM urges UN to support push for Palestinian statehood
  • Aziz Akhannouch expresses solidarity with Qatar, Syria, Lebanon against Israeli attacks
  • Two-state solution ‘only way’ to achieve Mideast peace, ‘can no longer be delayed or marginalized’

NEW YORK: Morocco’s prime minister urged the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to support the push for Palestinian statehood along the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Aziz Akhannouch, whose country signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in December 2020, expressed concern for the “deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories,” urging the UN to “mobilize” to “save the region from the cycle of violence.”

He outlined four priorities that must be pursued: “One, an immediate ceasefire (in Gaza) and a return to the negotiating table in order to put a final end to the war. Two, ensuring the entry of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank without any conditions or restrictions. Three, promote the vital role of UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). And four, implement a clear and comprehensive roadmap for reconstruction.”

He added: “We continue to believe that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve sustainable and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

“This is the solution that can no longer be delayed or marginalized. It needs to be a moral commitment and a political, immediate request.”

Akhannouch called for the UN to define a timeframe “to ensure the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to establish a Palestinian state.”

He emphasized that there can be no peace without “a strong economic foundation” for the Palestinian people.

“We need to also promote support to the Palestinian Authority so that it can strengthen its institutions to serve its people and achieve their aspirations, and finally adopt regional security mechanisms that are sustainable based on international law and mutual respect,” he added.

Akhannouch said the holy sites in Palestine are of critical importance to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who is chair of the Al-Quds Committee, established in 1975 as one of the four standing committees of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

The prime minister added that Morocco “stands in solidarity” with Qatar, Syria and Lebanon “in the face of the attacks they’ve been under by Israel. In the same vein, we call for the adoption of peaceful solutions to disputes in sisterly Arab states — including in Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia — through dialogue and consensus.”