CAIRO: Egypt’s Interior Ministry says it has killed three members of a militant group it considers a splinter of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Saturday’s statement by the ministry says the militants, belonging to the Hasm movement, were killed in an exchange of fire during a raid on their hideout in Giza. It added that 10 other members of the group were arrested in other raids.
The militants, the ministry says, were planning attacks targeting the Coptic celebrations of Christmas on Jan.7.
Hasm routinely targets security personnel. Militant attacks have surged in Egypt since the military’s 2013 ouster of an elected Islamist president.
On Friday, a shootout outside Cairo church and at a nearby store killed at least nine in an attack claimed by the extremist Daesh group.
Egypt says 3 militants killed in Giza shootout
Egypt says 3 militants killed in Giza shootout
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
