Tag Archives: Egypt

Cease-Fire Extension Sought By Negotiators

Sources close to the Cairo negotiations between Israel and terrorist group Hamas indicate that the current cease-fire is being extended for a few days rather than a long-term peace deal.

The move is being pushed by the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to keep Hamas from launching a new round of terror attacks on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not comment on the details of the negotiations or the possibility of an extension of the current cease-fire.   However, he did say that if Hamas were to start a new round of hostilities that Israel would respond with their strongest actions to date.

“We are preparing for any outcome — the Israeli team was instructed to insist firmly on Israel’s security needs, and the IDF is gearing up for a very forceful response if the fire resumes,” he says.

The Israeli Defense Forces moved additional troops into the southern territory in an apparent move to be ready for a quick strike should Hamas resume terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process is appealing to Gaza residents to back the Palestinian Authority.

“Right now, Gaza urgently needs houses, hospitals and schools – not rockets, tunnels and conflict,” Robert Serry told reporters.

Hamas Threatens To End Current Truce

Hamas has announced they will not extend the current cease-fire unless they see “real progress” during negotiations in Cairo.

Hamas did not make clear what they would consider “real progress.”

Egypt had presented a revised draft for a long-term cease-fire that would be implemented in two steps by early 2015.  Hamas rejected the deal outright.  It would have called for Israel to open border crossings and withdraw troops from the buffer zone in the Gaza strip.  Deals for prisoners, an airport and seaport would be delayed for a month in negotiations.

The current cease-fire ends at midnight.

Meanwhile, a reporter for the Associated Press was killed along with a translator working for AP when a rocket shot into Israel from the IDF exploded as technicians were disarming it.  Simone Camilli, 35, had been working with AP since 2005.  An AP photographer, Hatem Moussa, was one of four people seriously injured in the blast.

Camilli is the first foreign journalist to die during the current Gaza conflict.

Young Egyptian Boy’s Prayer For Iraq Goes Viral

The sound of a small, fragile little boy’s voice is being passed around the world to remind people to pray for persecuted Christians in Iraq.

The boy, known only as Mario, lives in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt.  He is a regular watcher of an Arabic Christian television satellite network called SAT-7 KIDS.  He called into a show because he wanted to pray for the families in Iraq because he was hurting for them even though they were hundreds of miles away.

This is Mario’s prayer translated into English:

“We thank you for extending your glory to everything in our lives, Lord…

We pray for Iraq and all the Arab countries, they’re in your hand, Lord. Let there be peace and forgiveness, oh Lord, in terms of those who are doing bombings. Watch over the innocent people…

Even those killing others, you love them very much. You wait for them that they may come back to you again, oh Lord.

Lord Jesus, you said, ‘Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ Yes, Lord. May we come back to you in everything, Lord Jesus.

Whether it be a small problem or a big problem, whether it be among nations or something material, or anything. If it be household problems, you will be glorified, Lord Jesus.

I thank you for hearing and answering us. Amen.”

The World Evangelical Alliance had called on Christians worldwide to focus on Christians and other minorities being persecuted by Islamic terrorists in Iraq.

Gaza Cease-Fire Holding

Egyptian negotiators have been frantically moving back and forth between Israeli representatives and those representing the terrorist group Hamas after another 72-hour cease-fire agreement was struck between the two sides.

Israel had previously said they would not agree to negotiations or a cease-fire unless Hamas stopped their terrorist rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

The cessation of hostilities went into effect around 5 p.m. eastern U.S. time Sunday after Hamas fired hundreds of rockets in the hour before it was to go into effect.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said they would be working with international aid groups to bring humanitarian supplies into the Gaza strip during the cease-fire.   Reports say that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledge financial support for the rebuilding of Gaza and for humanitarian aid to Palestinians trapped in the Gaza strip.

The talks broke down last Friday when Hamas, enraged that Israel had not removed a naval blockade, broke a previous cease-fire with rocket attacks.

There has been one reported incident since the cease-fire.  An Islamic militant was shot by the IDF after he opened fire on two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Qabalan.

Israeli Ambassador Slams U.N. Secretary-General

Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, is calling out the body’s head for his open bias toward the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza conflict.

After Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a verbal assault against Israel, saying they need to be investigated for their attacks that caused damage to some U.N. facilities in the Gaza Strip, Prosor responded by telling the Secretary-General he needs to realize who was behind the entire situation.

“Israel did not seek the confrontation,” Prosor said.  “We left Gaza with the intention of never returning.”

Prosor was referencing the 2005 unilateral withdrawal.

It was also pointed out to the Secretary-General that Hamas was using schools, hospitals and other locations to launch attacks.  On three separate occasions, Hamas weapons were found stored inside U.N. schools and the Secretary-General made no condemnation of Hamas for their actions in those cases.

Reports have begun from inside Israel that the government will agree to an extension of the 72-hour cease-fire to allow longer negotiations in Cairo, Egypt.  However, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces says they have plans in place to target Hamas leadership should they break the agreement and fire a single rocket into Israel.

Israel Pulls All Troops From Gaza

A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces said that all ground troops had been pulled out of Gaza Tuesday morning as part of a 72-hour cease-fire agreement.

The two sides in the conflict have now sent representatives to Cairo where an Egyptian mediator will shuttle between the two sides to try and work out some kind of deal to bring a lasting peace in the conflict.

Israel had said they would not agree to a cease-fire or any deal until all the Hamas tunnels into the country were destroyed.  IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said that the destruction of 32 tunnels was completed late last night.

Lerner also told reporters that at least 3,500 rockets from Hamas had been fired into Israel at the time the cease-fire went into effect.  He said that Israeli troops were able to destroy at least 3,000 rockets being held in storage during the ground incursion into Gaza.

Hamas has said their demands now include international funding for the rebuilding of Gaza.

Egypt Calls To Restart Peace Talks

Egypt is calling for Hamas and Israel to sit down at the table and restart the peace talks that have been stalled for years as a way to end the current conflict.

Egyptian Foreign Minster Sameh Shukri met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today, working to find a framework to get the two sides sitting down to negotiate and end to the hostilities.

Shukri told reporters his goal is “to not only resolve this issue but also to set in motion once again the peace process that Secretary Kerry has been so actively involved in so as to end this ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”

Kerry flew to Cairo Monday to see how he could assist with the negotiations.  President Obama said that the administration is building in concern for civilians.

“We have serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives,” Obama said in Washington. “And that is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a cease-fire that ends the fighting and can stop the deaths of innocent civilians, both in Gaza and in Israel.”

Kerry said that $47 million will be given by the United States for humanitarian aid to Gaza at the end of the hostilities.

Netanyahu: Hamas Committing “Double War Crime”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Hamas is conducting a double war crime in firing rockets at Israeli citizens while at the same time using innocent Palestinian citizens as human shields.

The prime minister spoke to reporters this morning taking questions about the ongoing Israeli response to Hamas’ continual terrorist attacks.

“Israel will continue to do what it needs to do to defend itself until peace and quiet are restored,” Netanyahu said. “[The] most important step for the international community to insist on is the demilitarization of Gaza.”

Hamas said today they rejected the peace proposal that Israel had accepted from Egypt because “Egypt has too many interests within Israel” to be impartial.

Hamas fired over 60 rockets Wednesday, 37 of which made it through the Iron Dome defense system.  Two Israeli citizens were slightly injured when a rocket destroyed by Iron Dome fell to the ground.

Israel Strikes Back After Hamas Rejects Peace Proposal

Air strikes against Hamas rocket launching positions resumed after Hamas flatly rejected a peace proposal from Egypt that would end the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Israel had approved the peace deal and had de-escalated their forces as per the outline set up by Egypt; however Hamas completely rejected the deal and immediately fired up to 50 rockets into Israel.  Israeli officials then announced they would resume their offensive against Hamas because of the terrorist’s ongoing rocket campaign.

Israeli officials say that no one was hurt during the six-hour window that the IDF had scaled back and Hamas fired rockets into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would likely intensify their campaign against Hamas because of their rejection of the cease-fire.

“If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation,” he said in a statement.

While President Obama told a group of Muslim leaders that Israel had the right to defend itself from Hamas’ attacks, Secretary of State John Kerry announced he would skip visiting the region on his way home from talks with Iran in Geneva.

Egyptian Christian Sentenced For Facebook “Like”

New details are emerging in the case of an Egyptian Coptic Christian who has been sentenced to six years in prison for an online posting deemed offensive to Islam.

Initial reports said that Kerolos Attallah, 29, had posted a photo on Facebook that several people considered insulting to Islam.  Those who were offended reported the posting to authorities who arrested Attallah near his home in a village near Luxor.

Now, information has come out that Attallah did not post the picture, he only clicked the “like” button for a page where someone else had posted the picture.  Attallah did not post the picture himself, did not “like” the actual picture and even removed his “like” of the page when he discovered some Islamic friends were offended.

Safwat Samaan, chairman of Egyptian human rights group Nation Without Borders, said that Attallah had not even posted a single comment on the disputed page.

“The sentence today was a shock not just to Kerolos but to everyone who uses Facebook in Egypt,” Samaan said. “Any person who uses Facebook in Egypt and presses ‘Like’ on any page … can be put into prison for six years.”

The page was called “Knights of the Cross” and is written in Arabic for Christians who convert from Islam.  The page provides encouragement, prayer and Bible Scriptures.