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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Egypt stated certainly one of its border guards had been killed on the Rafah crossing with Gaza, after stories of an change of fireside between Egyptian and Israeli forces.
Israel confirmed {that a} “taking pictures incident” had taken place on the Egyptian border on Monday, including that it was “below evaluation” and that “discussions are being held with the Egyptians”, with out offering additional particulars.
Egypt’s armed forces additionally stated they had been investigating the incident. An Egyptian official sought to minimize the taking pictures, saying it was a “minor incident” and had “no political significance”.
The Israeli navy has been current in Rafah because it launched an assault on the southern Gaza metropolis earlier this month, which drew fierce criticism from Egypt and far of the worldwide group.
Israeli officers have insisted that an offensive within the metropolis is important to defeat Hamas, which triggered the present hostilities with its October 7 assault on Israel, and whose final main stronghold is within the southern Gazan metropolis.
However even Israel’s closest allies, such because the US, have repeatedly warned of the dire humanitarian toll of an enormous operation within the metropolis, which turned a refuge for greater than 1mn civilians after the preventing between Israel and Hamas erupted final 12 months.
The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice final week ordered Israel to “instantly halt” its navy offensive in Rafah, warning that humanitarian situations within the metropolis had been “disastrous”.
Nevertheless, Israeli forces continued to function within the metropolis over the weekend, together with a strike on Sunday night that killed a minimum of 45 individuals in a tent camp for displaced individuals within the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood.
Israel’s navy prosecutor has ordered an investigation into the incident, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu known as a “tragic accident”.
It drew worldwide condemnation, nonetheless. French President Emmanuel Macron stated he was “outraged” by the strike and Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto stated that Palestinians had been being “squeezed with out regard for the rights of harmless males, ladies and youngsters who don’t have anything to do with Hamas”.
Egypt was the primary Arab nation to ascertain diplomatic relations with Israel in 1979, and main incidents on their shared border have been uncommon in recent times.
Nevertheless, within the early weeks of the conflict, Israel apologised after certainly one of its tanks “unintentionally” fired and hit an Egyptian put up close to the border within the space of Kerem Shalom, injuring a number of Egyptian border guards.
In June final 12 months, an Egyptian safety official shot useless three Israeli troopers, earlier than being himself shot useless by Israeli forces, in what was the deadliest border conflict for greater than a decade.
