The Egyptian foreign minister has denied reports his country is preparing for an influx of refugees as Palestinians in Rafah face an expected Israeli ground offensive.
More than a million people sheltering around the southern Gazan city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, are braced for an operation by the Israeli army, with nowhere left to flee inside the besieged territory.
Satellite images taken last Thursday showed construction in progress along the Egypt-Gaza border, prompting suggestions Egypt was gearing up to accept Palestinian civilians.
Image: Satellite images show land being cleared in an area near Egypt’s border with Gaza. Pic: Reuters/Maxar Technologies
Image: Pic: Reuters/Maxar Technologies
Footage purportedly of the site was posted by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, which in a post on X cited Egyptian officials as saying tents were being prepared and the area could serve as a camp to accommodate up to 100,000 refugees.
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But Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry has told Sky News’ Yalda Hakim there has been “no preparation whatsoever” for an influx of Palestinians and that the construction seen in the images is ordinary border maintenance.
Mr Shoukry said: “No, we are not preparing anything on our side of the border. Whatever is happening is the ordinary maintenance of our border and our border fortifications. It is in no way related to providing any camps or shelter on our side of the border.
“We are providing a great deal of humanitarian assistance and tents for the sheltering of the Palestinians who do not have any shelter, and in areas that we hope will be immune from military activity.
“[There is] no preparation whatsoever related to the influx of any civilians from Gaza into Egyptian territory.”
The foreign minister added Egypt has regularly maintained the border for “years and years” and any suggestions that there is more to the works are “an exaggeration”.
Image: Palestinians in Rafah shelter at the border with Egypt. Pic: Reuters
He said Egypt would continue to provide humanitarian trucks to Palestinians on the other side of the border.
Asked if the idea of an influx of Palestinian refugees was a “red line” for him, Mr Shoukry said: “Absolutely. I’m prepared to hit this at the highest level. This is not an acceptable circumstance.
“We will not accept the liquidation of the Palestinian cause by removing Palestinians from their territory, from their lands, and creating new conditions of displacement.”
The UK’s foreign secretary Lord Cameron has said the UK is “very concerned” about the situation in Rafah and called for Israel to “stop and think seriously” before taking further action, while US President Joe Biden said a “credible plan” was needed to protect civilians before the offensive.
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0:59
Israel must have a ‘credible plan’ before Rafah operation
Israeli officials have said the military is working on a detailed plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah ahead of it, but have yet to share any details.
In an interview aired on US network ABC last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israeli forces would carry out an assault on Rafah but insisted they were preparing “a detailed plan” for where civilians there could go.
“We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah,” he said, adding: “We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population.”
Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said on Friday that his country will “coordinate with Egypt” on Palestinian refugees.
The military’s imminent Rafah offensive follows operations in northern Gaza, Gaza City, central Gaza, and Khan Younis.
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3:01
Israel says its special forces have raided the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza
Israeli forces raided the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday, and said they arrested 100 suspects on the premises, killed gunmen near the hospital and found weapons inside it.
The Gaza health ministry said about 10,000 people were seeking shelter at the hospital earlier this week, but many left either in anticipation of the Israeli raid or because of Israeli orders to evacuate.
They also said at least 83 people have been killed in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since Friday, including one person in Rafah on Saturday.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Image: Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Image: Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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2:21
Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
Image: A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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1:44
Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
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Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
Image: A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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3:08
‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Image: Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Image: Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
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A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.