Gaza receives engineering equipment from Egypt to rebuild strip

A convoy of bulldozers provided by Egypt arrives at the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Palestinian Gaza Strip enclave on June 4, 2021. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 05 June 2021
Follow

Gaza receives engineering equipment from Egypt to rebuild strip

  • Egypt played a major role in brokering a ceasefire between both sides
  • The country said it would allocate $500 million to fund the rebuilding of devastated areas in Gaza

CAIRO: The Gaza Strip on Friday received engineering equipment from Egypt to begin the reconstruction process following the 11-day Israeli war.

The equipment will help to remove rubble from buildings destroyed as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

It was received by flag-waving Palestinians and came after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s commitment to rapidly improve the living conditions of Gazans.

He previously announced that the country would provide $500 million for the Gaza Strip's reconstruction, an initiative that was welcomed at regional and international levels.

Official sources said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would remain open on Fridays as an exception to receive medical emergency cases and for the transfer of aid and reconstruction material to the strip, based on the approval of Egyptian authorities.

Administrative and medical staff are present at the crossing to facilitate the entry of injured people and those accompanying them.

Also present is a fleet of ambulances equipped to transport patients to Egyptian hospitals once their health conditions have been classified.


Video shows armed men beating a Palestinian in West Bank

Updated 53 min 27 sec ago
Follow

Video shows armed men beating a Palestinian in West Bank

  • The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said

TEL AVIV: Dozens of masked men armed with sticks beat and injured a Palestinian in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when they attacked a plant nursery, according to people who saw the attack and video footage obtained by The Associated Press.
Video filmed by security cameras shows men dressed mostly in black, faces covered, with several hitting and kicking a man on the ground.
Two witnesses who are members of the family that owns the facility said Israeli settlers beat 67-year-old Basim Saleh Yassin as he was trying to flee the German-Palestinian-run nursery in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

BACKGROUND

The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued.

Workers fled when they saw the settlers coming on Thursday but Yassin is deaf and couldn’t hear the warnings to leave, one family member said.
The witnesses said Yassin was in the hospital with broken bones in his hand and other injuries to his face, chest and back. Four cars at the nursery were burned.
The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued. 
Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.” 
But rights groups and Palestinians say the problem is far greater than a few bad actors, and attacks have become a daily phenomenon across the territory.
Israel’s army said it dispatched soldiers to the Shavei Shomron junction — close to the area of Thursday’s attack — following reports of dozens of masked Israelis vandalizing property. 
The army said it apprehended three suspects who were taken to police for questioning. It said security forces condemn violence of any kind.
According to one of the family members who own the nursery, it was the third time in a year that the facility was attacked. 
The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said.
In the video of Thursday’s attack, Yassin runs from a group of masked people before falling to the ground.
One man kicks him and another hits him twice with what appears to be a stick. Yassin stays on his knees as he’s struck again and then places his hands on the ground. 
As the men are leaving, one kicks him in the head while others strike him again until he’s seen lying on the pavement.