Some residents of east Rafah began to evacuate their homes on Monday morning after the Occupation military ordered them to move to a “humanitarian area” in Mawasi.  In a briefing, the military told journalists the evacuation was intended to make way for an operation of “limited scope.” The evacuation orders come despite weeks of international pressure on Israel to limit the scope and scale of its planned attack on Rafah, specifically over how the Occupation will ensure the safety of the 1.5 million Palestinians currently sheltering in the border city. Israel began to drop leaflets on eas ..read more

In the second year of Sudan’s war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the city of Fasher, the historic capital of Darfur, has become one of the most critical battlegrounds.  The outcomes of the imminent battle could potentially sever the region from the central government’s control, should the RSF succeed in capturing Fasher, evoking echoes of history dating back to 1916 when the British colonial administration first annexed and then integrated the region into the Sudanese state. The magnitude and significance of the anticipated clash in Fasher are evide ..read more

A world not our own At a certain point during the past two decades, my mind considered the world as a party that must be held accountable for what is happening both within the confines of the deadly torture apparatus that Israel has built for us in Gaza and at a subconscious level as we absorb everything that befalls us as a further disgrace to our individual and collective pre-national dignity. So, like all Palestinians in Gaza, my feelings of grief, which go hand in hand with a heavy sense of humiliation, have now given way to anger toward the world. It is a defense mechanism to give myself ..read more

Seven people who took part in activities to express political support for Palestine were arrested abruptly from their homes by authorities in Alexandria over the past week. The arrests are the latest in a series of security responses to individuals participating in protests or showing other forms of public support for the Palestinian cause. Among those arrested were six young people who suspended a banner from the overpass of an Alexandria highway last week. “End the siege of Palestine and release the detainees. Open the Rafah border crossing,” read the banner.  Security forces raided th ..read more

With Israeli officials repeatedly affirming the imminence of an invasion into Rafah, Egypt has submitted a proposal for a truce deal between Hamas and Israel to divert what is widely expected to be an operation that will cause a humanitarian disaster.  An Egyptian delegation headed to Tel Aviv on Friday to discuss with Israeli intelligence officials ways “to restart talks to end the conflict and return the remaining hostages.”  The deal under discussion has three phases.  In the first phase, all preparations for a military operation in Rafah would be stopped. The second phase w ..read more

After more than a year of stalled reviews of Egypt’s December 2022 loan, the International Monetary Fund published a report over the weekend documenting the progress on the program’s policy prescriptions. The report, based on the IMF’s March review, outlines what was already clear for many: Egypt had failed to make much progress on its policy commitments, with the IMF saying that eight of 15 pledges had not been met. In its report, the IMF notes that it has received and approved a waiver of non-compliance from Egypt for the policies mandated under the 2022 US$3 billion loan agreement. This ap ..read more

If you want to buy a large-sized fish from a market in Egypt these days, it is going to set you back. At about 500 grams — a portion for one person — a large tilapia or mullet is going to cost you a maximum of LE100 to LE250 respectively. The prices depend, of course, on quality. Fish from polluted fish farms will cost you less. The price of high-end fish products will be even steeper. That contrast is most clear with shrimp, which depending on the size, can cost you LE350 to LE900 for a kilo. These are staggering prices for most Egyptians who consider fish and seafood part of their diet. Ove ..read more

Many displaced individuals in Rafah are preparing to evacuate once again, as talks of an imminent ground invasion of the border city intensify. Eman Salha, a displaced person in Rafah, said that her husband has already added the family to the list for evacuation from Rafah to temporary camps in the Mawasi area. “There is no safe place from the attacks, but we will head to Mawasi because our situation here is dire,” Salha said.  Salha had fled from Gaza city to an UNRWA school in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah. Displaced families around Salha have started leaving Rafah, S ..read more

The war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces continues to rage on, as new armed groups throw themselves into the ring, taking up positions on either side even as they have their own agendas.  Sudan’s war, now in its second year, has unleashed one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes in modern history. With around 8.2 million people displaced and about 15,000 civilians killed, the battleground has expanded to engulf eight key states, which are among the most densely populated in Sudan. Despite this unparalleled humanitarian tragedy, the fighting pers ..read more

Aufarbeitung and Vergangenheitsbewältigung are German political terms that have shaped postwar history studies and found their way into international academia, roughly translating to the thorough analysis of a past historical event. Germany was once considered a leading country in coming to terms with its particularly horrendous Third Reich past and the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were killed and tortured. Since Germany’s reunification, numerous books and documentaries relating to new angles and aspects of the Nazis’ ascent and demise have emerged almost every year. Growing up in Germany ..read more