CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi on Tuesday attended the funeral of Egypt’s top public prosecutor killed by a car bomb on the previous day, and said he would within days reveal legal reforms that would allow a tougher line against militants.
Public prosecutor Hisham Barakat was the most senior Egyptian official to be killed in years, and Monday’s attack has cast doubt on Egypt’s ability to contain an insurgency that is picking increasingly high-profile targets.
El-Sissi led the procession at Barakat’s military funeral held at a mosque on the outskirts of Cairo. At a ceremony attended by senior government and religious officials and members of Barakat’s family, El-Sissi said the militant threat in Egypt demanded urgent legal reforms.
“The hand of justice is tied by laws... We will not wait for that,” he said in comments broadcast on state television.
“We will not sit for five or 10 years putting on trial the people who kill us.”
The funeral fell on the second anniversary of the start of mass protests that preceded president Mohamed Mursi’s overthrow in July 2013 by the army, then under El-Sissi’s leadership.
In his address at the funeral, El-Sissi did not give details of his plans for legal reforms but said they would be unveiled “within days.”
“A death sentence will be issued, a death sentence will be implemented. A life sentence will be issued, a life sentence will be implemented,” he said.
El-Sissi toughens anti-terror stance
El-Sissi toughens anti-terror stance
Hamas calls for sanctions against Israel over new West Bank moves
- Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers
- Hamas hailed the condemnation as “a step in the right direction in confronting the occupation’s expansionist plans
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, welcoming a joint condemnation by nearly 20 countries of new Israeli measures aimed at tightening control over the occupied West Bank.
Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property” and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly.
Late on Monday, 18 countries including regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and European powers France and Spain, slammed Israel over the recent moves.
They “are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation,” the countries said.
“Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution.”
Hamas hailed the condemnation as “a step in the right direction in confronting the occupation’s expansionist plans, which flagrantly violate international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
The group in a statement urged the countries involved “to impose deterrent sanctions and exert pressure on the fascist occupation government to halt its policies aimed at entrenching annexation, colonial settlement and forced displacement.”
It said the Israeli measures were part of ongoing “aggression” against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
Israel’s current government has accelerated settlement expansion, approving a record 54 settlements in 2025, according to activists.
The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, is envisioned as the core of a future Palestinian state, but many on Israel’s religious right view it as part of Israel’s historic homeland.
