CAIRO: In a city as big and busy as Cairo, a daily commute is simply a nightmare.
From lorries ramming into smaller cars, to pedestrians suddenly stepping into the road, a journey in Cairo on a busy day can seem like navigating through hell.
To survive on Egypt’s streets, one must abide by an unwritten set of driving laws to which local drivers have accustomed themselves.
Your mission is not only to avoid mistakes, but most importantly watch out for errors by others.
Drivers must firstly avoid messing with big vehicles. Trucks and public buses own the road in Egypt and pay little regard to the smaller vehicles around them. Taxis, microbuses and tuk-tuk drivers must also be avoided as they operate under a whole different set of rules.
And despite it being 2018, don’t be surprised to find yourself stuck behind decrepit carts drawn by horses or donkeys.
Egypt’s roads often lack marked lanes. Even when the tarmac does have markings, it is nearly impossible to stick to them because other drivers force you to pull in to one side so they can perform their suicidal overtaking maneuvers.
In Cairo’s famous traffic jams, there is no room for manners. Drivers who manage to get their car slightly in front of yours will feel entitled to push in.
And then there are Egypt’s infamous U-turns. A disastrous piece of road planning found randomly on highways that are far too small to cope with the volume of traffic trying to use them. A favorite stunt among Egypt’s drivers is for someone to be out in the fourth lane and still attempt to make a U-turn — because why wait in line?
Egypt’s choked streets are notorious for the cacophony of car horns. Each set of honks carries a specific meaning, from swearing at someone to greeting another.
Most serious is the high price Egyptians pay for the chaos on their roads. Official figures say more than 5,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2016.
But these death tolls only count the number of people who died at the site of the accident. The actual toll could be double that when it includes those who died later from their injuries, said Osama Aqeel, a leading Egyptian roads expert.
Even Egypt’s Transport Minister Dr. Hisham Arafat admitted recently that the actual death toll could be as high as 13,000 a year.
The minister has also said that 94 percent of road accidents in Egypt are caused by human error and faulty vehicles, while road conditions amount to only 4 percent, and weather conditions 2 percent.
In 2016, a World Health Organization report placed Egypt among the 10 worst countries worldwide for its fatal roads.
Egypt in 2017 ranked 48th place globally for road traffic deaths, according to the transport minister.
The question of who is responsible for Egypt’s terrible driving, the government or the Egyptian people, has been left hanging for decades.
“’It’s a mutual responsibility between the government and the public,”’ Ibrahim Mabrook, a professor of transport and traffic engineering at Ain Shams University in Cairo, said.
Mabrook said Egypt can improve its road safety by “’engineering better roads, educating the public about road safety, enforcing strict laws, and applying the law equally on all members of society.”’ Aqeel said he finds the government 100 percent responsible for the high road traffic deaths because it is responsible for the entire strategy.
“’Saying that the majority of accidents in Egypt occur because of ‘human error’ is completely inaccurate in my opinion, because traffic regulation is the main factor,”’ he said.
In Egypt, trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians all share the same space on the roads. Aqeel said more than 40 percent of accidents that result in deaths involve trucks.
“’If we create alternative roads for trucks for instance to prevent them from driving with regular cars on major roads, the number of accidents resulting in death will immediately drop.”’
Ahmed Shelbaya, co-founder of the NADA Foundation For Safer Egyptian Roads, said road crashes are the “’number one killer of Egyptian youth.”’
He said the government does not take the road safety crisis seriously enough and that there is a lack of “’intelligent safety laws.”’
Daily nightmare of commuting on Egypt roads
Daily nightmare of commuting on Egypt roads
Aid is delivered to Gaza from newly repaired US-built pier, US official says
- Israeli restrictions on land crossings, and fighting, have greatly limited the flow of food and other vital supplies into the territory
WASHINGTON: Badly needed aid has been delivered to Gaza from a newly repaired American-built pier, a US official said Saturday, following problems that had plagued the effort to bring supplies to Palestinians by sea.
The pier constructed by the American military was only operational for about a week before it was blown apart in high winds and heavy seas on May 25. The damaged section was reconnected to the beach in Gaza on Friday after undergoing repairs at an Israeli port.
Crews delivered about 1.1 million pounds (492 metric tons) of humanitarian aid to Gaza via the pier on Saturday, the US official said. They spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement of the delivery.
It came the same day that Israel mounted a heavy air and ground assault that rescued four hostages, who had been taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 assault that launched the war in Gaza. At least 210 Palestinians, including children, were killed, a Gaza health official said.
It brings back online one way to get desperately needed food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians trapped by the eight-month-old Israel-Hamas war. Israeli restrictions on land crossings, and fighting, have greatly limited the flow of food and other vital supplies into the territory.
The damage to the pier was the latest stumbling block for the project and the persistent struggle to get food to starving Palestinians. Three US service members were injured, one critically, and four vessels were beached due to heavy seas.
Early efforts to get aid from the pier into the Gaza Strip were disrupted as crowds overran a convoy of trucks that aid agencies were using to transport the food, stripping the cargo from many of them before they could reach a UN warehouse. Officials responded by altering the travel routes, and aid began reaching those in need.
Israeli hostage Noa Argamani freed in time to see her terminally ill mother
- Argamani, 26, was one of the most recognized faces among the hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7
- Argamani was rescued on Saturday, along with three other hostages, in an operation by Israeli special forces from an apartment building in central Gaza
TEL AVIV: Hours after being rescued from eight months captivity in Gaza, freed hostage Noa Argamani arrived at a hospital in Tel Aviv to see her terminally ill mother.
Argamani, 26, was one of the most recognized faces among the hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7. Harrowing footage of her being taken into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, pleading for her life and reaching desperately toward her boyfriend being marched alongside her on foot circulated across the globe.
Argamani’s boyfriend Avinatan Or is still in captivity.
Argamani was rescued on Saturday, along with three other hostages, in an operation by Israeli special forces from an apartment building in central Gaza.
“I’m so happy to be here,” she said in a phone call with Israel’s president upon her return, smiling and surrounded by friends and family.
She was later met with cheers upon arrival at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center where her mother, Liora, was being treated for terminal brain cancer.
Back in October, shortly after her daughter was abducted from a music festival turned killing field in southern Israel, Liora, sitting in a wheelchair, was asked in an interview with a local television station how she imagined their reunion.
“At least to be able to hug her,” Liora answered.
Hospital CEO Ronni Gamzu said the mother’s condition was “complicated and tough.” He said Argamani was able to communicate with her mother, who they believe understood that her daughter had come home.
“For the last eight months we are trying to keep her in a status that she can communicate,” Gamzu said.
Argamani’s father, Yaakov, first met her after a military helicopter carried her back to Israel.
“Today is my birthday, and a gift like this I never believed I would get,” he said.
More than 360 people were killed during the rampage at the Nova dance festival, and another 40 were taken hostage by Hamas, according to Israeli tallies.
Nearby the hospital in central Tel Aviv, at what has become known as hostage square, thousands of Israelis rallied to commemorate the rescue of the four hostages and to demand the release of more than 115 that remain in Gaza.
GCC to hold 160th ministerial council in Doha on Sunday
RIYADH: The 160th Ministerial Council meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council will convene in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Sunday in the presence of the foreign ministers of the Gulf countries.
Two joint ministerial meetings will also be held on the sidelines, the first between the GCC and Turkiye with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and the second with Yemen Yemen, represented by Foreign Minister Shaya Mohsin Zindani, the GCC said in a statement.
GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi said that the ministerial council will discuss a number of reports on the implementation of the decisions of the Supreme Council that were issued at the 44th summit in Doha in December 2023, as well as memorandums and reports submitted by ministerial and technical committees and the General Secretariat, related to joint Gulf action.
He said that the session will also discuss dialogues and strategic relations between the GCC countries and other countries and blocs around the world, and regional and international developments.
Albudaiwi said that, out of the keenness of the GCC countries to intensify and strengthen their relations and partnerships with countries, allies, and regional and international organizations, the Gulf-Turkish meeting will be held where several topics will be discussed, the most important of which is the joint action plan and ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries.
The GCC-Yemeni meeting will discuss and the bloc’s firm position “in support of the legitimate government in Yemen and the resolution of the Yemeni crisis through a political solution in accordance with the three references, represented in the GCC Initiative, the outcomes of the comprehensive National Dialogue Conference, and Security Council Resolution 2216,” he said.
The meeting will also look at ways tostrengthen the joint GCC efforts to assist the Yemeni people to ensure their stability and security, he added.
Israel PM asks war cabinet minister Gantz not to quit after ultimatum
- Gantz said last month he would resign from the emergency body if Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday asked war cabinet minister Benny Gantz not to resign after threats to quit over the lack of post-war strategy for the Gaza Strip.
Gantz said last month he would resign from the emergency body if Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.
“I call on Benny Gantz — do not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity,” Netanyahu said on social media platform X.
Gantz canceled a news conference that was scheduled for Saturday, his office said, after the Israeli military said security forces had rescued four hostages alive from Gaza earlier in the day.
Without directly addressing speculations he had been planning to resign, Gantz appeared on Israeli television on Saturday evening after the captives were freed.
“Alongside the justified joy over this achievement, it should not be forgotten that all the challenges Israel is facing... have remained as they were,” Gantz said.
“Therefore, I say to the prime minister and the entire leadership — today, too, we must look responsibly at what is right and how we can continue from here.”
His centrist National Union Party submitted a bill last week to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and hold early elections.
Gantz has been seen as a favorite to form a coalition in the event that Netanyahu’s government is brought down and early elections are called.
The former army chief, one of Netanyahu’s main rivals before he joined the war cabinet, had said this week that returning hostages from Gaza was a “priority.”
The army said Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were rescued from central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday.
All four had been kidnapped by Hamas militants from the Nova music festival on October 7, the military said in a statement, adding the four had been taken to hospital and were in “good medical condition.”
During their October 7 attack on southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israeli move on Nuseirat will not affect swap deal, says Palestinian Islamic Jihad
- Al-Hindi said that conditions for the deal remain the same
CAIRO: Israel’s military operation on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp will not affect the current prisoner-hostage swap deal, said Mohammad Al-Hindi, deputy chief of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which is an ally of Hamas.
Al-Hindi said that conditions for the deal remain the same, in comments to Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.
