JEDDAH: Veteran Egyptian actress Yousra has announced that she will file an official complaint with the State Information Service against The New York Times’ Cairo bureau, according to Masrawy news portal.
Yousra was one of several famous Egyptian TV personalities listed in a report by the Times’ London-based international correspondent David D. Kirkpatrick on Saturday — “Tapes Reveal Egyptian Leaders’ Tacit Acceptance of Jerusalem Move” — who allegedly took orders from Egyptian intelligence officer Ashraf Al-Khouly to “persuade their viewers” to accept US President Donald Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
The Times claimed to have an audio recording of telephone calls in which Al-Khouly instructed hosts of several popular talk shows that “instead of condemning the decision, they should persuade their viewers to accept it.”
The report caused outrage in Egypt’s artistic community. In a phone interview with TV show “Al-Asema” (The Capital) on Saturday, the president of Egypt’s Actors’ Syndicate, Ashraf Zaki, announced that the syndicate supported Yousra in “suing these programs and websites that are playing against Egypt.”
Egyptian actress Yousra denies New York Times’ claims
Egyptian actress Yousra denies New York Times’ claims
Medical stocks ‘critically low’ in Gaza, WHO says
- Supplies of some items such as gauze and needles have already run out, said Balkhy
- “Stocks of essential medicines, trauma supplies and surgical consumables are critically low”
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Friday that medical supplies in Gaza were running critically low despite Israel’s reopening of a key crossing this week.
Supplies of some items such as gauze and needles have already run out, said WHO’s regional director Hanan Balkhy, citing information from the Health Ministry in Gaza, devastated by the two-year Israel-Hamas war.
“Stocks of essential medicines, trauma supplies and surgical consumables are critically low, and fuel shortages continue to limit hospital operations,” she said.
“The situation is difficult, and we will be running out of whatever is remaining.” On Tuesday, the Israeli military agency that controls access to Gaza said it had reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing “for the gradual entry of humanitarian aid.” It had closed entry points earlier citing missile threats from Iran amid an escalating air war after Israeli and US forces attacked Iran on Saturday.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt, the main exit point for most people in Gaza, has remained shut and medical evacuations suspended, WHO said.
A THIRD OF DAILY TRUCK TRAFFIC
Some 18,000 people, including injured children and people with chronic diseases, are awaiting evacuation, according to the UN agency.
Balkhy said that it was able to import some medical supplies and fuel on Tuesday and Wednesday, but that some trucks remain on standby in Al-Arish, Egypt.
“We’re talking about … maximum 200 out of 600 daily trucks that need to go in are going in so that is really not enough to support the needs in Gaza,” she said. She called for more fuel to be allowed to enter to run hospitals.
Half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still shut after the Israel-Hamas war ended in a shaky ceasefire last October and the ones that are open are struggling to sustain critical services such as surgery, dialysis and intensive care, she said.
