Tag: egypt

Egypt’s Border Crossing With Gaza Closed Off as Palestinians Have Nowhere to Flee

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has been closed off as Palestinians have nowhere to flee amid relentless Israeli airstrikes that started in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

The Israeli military on Tuesday revised a recommendation for Palestinians to “get out” of Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. “Clarification: The Rafah crossing was open yesterday, but now it is closed,” the office of spokesman Lt-Col. Richard Hecht said, according to Reuters.

The New Arab reported that Egyptian officials said the crossing was closed off indefinitely. “The crossing will be closed indefinitely, for the situation has become quite dangerous after the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has had an impact on the Egyptian side of the crossing,” an Egyptian security source told the outlet.

Another source said Egypt was trying to ensure “no attempts of infiltration by Palestinians into Egypt can take place.”

According to the Red Crescent, three Israeli airstrikes hit the Rafah border crossing within 24 hours after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege of Gaza,” which involved cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel.

Israeli Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the head of an Israeli military agency in charge of policies in the West Bank and Gaza, said on Tuesday that Israel was turning Gaza into “hell.”

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Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored warnings of ‘something big’

Amid mounting questions about Israel’s failure to anticipate the unprecedented attack by Hamas, an Egyptian intelligence official said his country had warned the Jewish state repeatedly about “something big” happening shortly.

The official said Israeli officials had been focused on their struggles in the West Bank and played down the threat from the militant group in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is made up of supporters of West Bank settlers who have demanded a crackdown in the face of a rising tide of violence in the area over the last 18 months.

“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.

Israel was caught flat-footed in the lead-up to the attack by Hamas, whose terrorists broke through border barriers to launch a brazen attack that has so far killed at least 800 people and wounded over 2,000, with the numbers expected to climb.

“This is a major failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to  Netanyahu. “This operation actually proves that the (intelligence) abilities in Gaza were no good.”

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Democrat Senator Bob Menendez and his wife are indicted for ‘accepting $400,000 in gold bars from mob-linked New Jersey developer in return for favors – and giving Egyptian businessman highly sensitive U.S. information’

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Arslanian have been indicted by a federal grand jury over corruption allegations in an investigation that focused on a luxury car, $400,000 in gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife.

The indictment claims the couple had an improper relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who allegedly paid the couple in exchange for Menendez to use his influence in Washington D.C. to their benefit.

The probe also looked at other bribes allegedly paid to the couple. A June 2022 raid on their home found ‘over $480,000 in cash – much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,’ the indictment notes, adding Nadine had over $70,000 in a safe deposit box. 

The indictment accuses Menendez and his wife of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using the senator’s influence to protect and enrich the businessmen.

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Archeologists Discover Hundreds Of Mummies, Tunnels, And Pyramid Of Unknown Queen

Archeologists have discovered hundreds of mummies, interconnected tunnels, and even the pyramid of a previously unknown queen — 100 years after King Tut’s tomb was found. 

The historical finds were discovered at an archeological site called Saqqara in Giza, just south of Egypt’s capital of Cairo, by a team that had been working at the site for two years. Archeologists found “300 beautiful coffins” that are believed to be from the New Kingdom period, a 500-year era of prosperity in Egypt between 1550-1070 B.C. 

“The coffins have individual faces, each one unique, distinguishing between men and women, and are decorated with scenes from the Book of the Dead,” according to Egypt’s former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, who is working at the site. “Each coffin also has the name of the deceased,” he said. 

The researchers opened the coffins and were surprised by the good condition of many of the mummies that have been inside them for many centuries. Hawass attributed this discovery to the period in Egypt’s history when mummification techniques peaked. He also noted that some of the coffins had multiple lids and that “the most amazing coffin” had a mask of a woman that was made of solid gold. Researchers believe some of these mummies consist of King Tut’s closest advisers and generals.  

As for the pyramid of the previously unknown queen, her name was revealed to be Neith. “It is amazing to literally rewrite what we know of history, adding a new queen to our records,” Hawass said of the find. 

The area of focus for the researchers was the pyramid of another pharoah, King Teti, the first king of the sixth dynasty who is believed to have reigned for 12 years. Found near Teti’s pyramid are 22 interconnected tunnels ranging from 30 to 60 feet deep, all of them are believed to have had burials during the New Kingdom period. It was previously believed that the majority of burials in Saqqara were from the Old Kingdom period, which lasted from 2649-2130 B.C. 

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FOUR HUNDRED private jets arrived in Egypt during COP27 as climate delegates are accused of ‘hypocrisy’

Climate delegates were accused of hypocrisy after 400 private jets arrived in Egypt for COP27.

Numerous posts on social media criticised delegates for travelling by private jet to the UN climate summit.

Posts and reports included various estimates for the number of such planes bringing delegates to the gathering in the beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Climate Action Against Disinformation, a group that analyses trends in false information on social media, said in a report on Thursday that narratives of supposed ‘hypocrisy and elitism’ were one of the main focuses of climate-sceptic messages during COP27.

Egyptian sources corroborated widespread claims that some 400 private jets landed during COP27. 

Some media cited lower estimates by flight-trackers, though there may have been private flights that were not logged by monitoring services.

One misleading post in Spanish claimed there were as many as 1,500 private jets. It was accompanied by an old photograph of planes from an aviation forum in Las Vegas.

‘More than 400 private jets landed in the past few days in Egypt,’ a source close to the Egyptian aviation authorities, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Thursday.

‘There was a meeting ahead of COP27, and officials were expecting those jets and made some arrangements in Sharm el-Sheikh airport to welcome those planes.’

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THE MYSTERY OF TUTANKHAMUN’S METEORIC IRON DAGGER

IN 1922, EGYPTIAN EXCAVATORS LED BY HOWARD CARTER DISCOVERED THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMUN, AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH WHO WAS THE LAST OF HIS ROYAL FAMILY TO RULE DURING THE END OF THE 18TH DYNASTY.

Located in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile opposite Thebes (modern Luxor), the tomb, KV62, was buried in mounds of debris from the cutting of KV9 for Pharaoh Ramesses V over 150 years after Tutankhamun’s death.

The discovery caused a media frenzy, revealing 5,398 items that included: a solid gold coffin, face mask, thrones, archery bows, trumpets, a lotus chalice, two Imiut fetishes, gold toe stalls, furniture, food, wine, sandals and fresh linen underwear.

Among the artefacts were a set of iron blades that resemble the PeseshKaf, a tool used in the “opening of the mouth ceremony,” a ritual performed for the deceased to enable them to breath, speak, eat and drink in the afterlife.

One of these blades is an iron dagger with an ornamental golden sheath, expertly produced by an ancient metalsmith.

The Howard Carter Archives describes the dagger as having a finely manufactured blade made from a homogeneous metal, while the handle is made of fine gold and is decorated with cloisonné and granulation work, ending with a pommel of rock crystal. On one side of the golden sheath is a floral lily motif, while on the other is a pattern of feathers terminating with a jackal’s head.

Examples in Egypt of contemporary smelting during the 18th Dynasty to produce Iron are very rare, and likely produced low-quality iron to be forged into precious objects. As the other blades found in the tomb are relatively crude, many scholars suggest that the ornamental dagger was imported to Egypt perhaps as a royal gift from a neighbouring territory or kingdom.

Diplomatic documents (the Amarna letters), that date from the 14th century BC mention royal gifts made of iron given to the pharaohs of Egypt from before Tutankhamun’s reign. Interestingly, one of these documents notes that Tushratta, King of Mitanni, sent iron objects to Amenhotep III (possibly Tutankhamun’s grandfather), which mentions iron blades in the lists.

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Scientists ‘Virtually Unwrap’ Exceptional 3,500-Year-Old Mummy of Amenhotep I With CT Scans, Revealing Ancient Mystery

A wrapped mummy of novel quality and exceptional appearance, whose burial rites were preserved from ages ago, has now been unwrapped—not by hand but virtually, using cutting-edge CT scans and 3D modeling software—revealing mysteries of the ancient kings of Egypt.

In 1902, among the royal mummies moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo was Amenhotep I, who reigned from 1525 to 1504 B.C. during the 18th Dynasty, whose remains were found in Luxor tomb Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache—where New Kingdom royalty were placed, so as to protect them from tomb robbers, some 3,000 years ago.

One of the few mummies found fully wrapped in modern times, Amenhotep I was marveled upon by then director of antiquities in Egypt Gaston Maspero. Having been desecrated by tomb raiders long ago, the mummy was reburied by priests of the 21st Dynasty. The beautiful reburial features garlands of yellow, red, and blue flowers, as well as an intact mask of cartonnage and painted wood with obsidian eyes and a cobra adorning the forehead. When the coffin of Amenhotep I was opened, a preserved wasp, possibly attracted by the smell of garlands and trapped, was also found inside. Preserving the novelty of this ritual, Maspero left Amenhotep I undisturbed.

Yet, recent technological advances have made possible a virtual “unwrapping” of the mummy, revealing more of the story hidden within.

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National Geographic Published Book Falsely Claiming Kyle Rittenhouse Killed Two Black Men

National Geographic published a book about ancient Egypt that mentioned Kyle Rittenhouse, and wildly mischaracterized the self defense shooting he was involved in nearly two years ago.

In the book “The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World” by Kara Cooney, published by National Geographic, the author falsely claims that Rittenhouse killed “two Black men” in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse never stood accused of murdering two black men, or one black man.

All of the men he shot in self defense had white skin.

Regardless, Cooney wrote:

“Or consider 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who used his semiautomatic weapon to kill two Black men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while waging a glorious race war on behalf of his inherited White power.”

“That’s not to mention the White people who rallied behind him to post his bail. Fear has gripped the patriarchy, and the threat of righteous violence—or the lethal use of it—is the patriarchy’s response.”

National File obtained a digital copy of the book and verified the claim exists in the text.

The claim is in the last chapter of the book, which is titled “Smashing The Patriarchy.”

This remark was written in the context of how ancient Egyptian authoritarian power structures are still seen in the 21st century.

It seems likely that National Geographic published Cooney because of her status as an academic. She is an Egyptology Professor at UCLA.

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Mystery Of The 100 Ton ‘Boxes’ At The Serapeum Of Saqqara

Located North West of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, we find the Serapeum of Saqqara. According to archaeologists, it was the burial-place of the Apus Bulls, literally speaking the living manifestations of the Egyptian God Ptah. This necropolis found near Memphis, Egypt is believed to have been built sometime around 1300 BCE, by Ramesses II.

Ever since its discovery in 1850 the Serapeum of Saqqara has puzzled archaeologists and researchers and the tunnels that have been unearthed since have been the subject of debate among many. This majestic ancient labyrinth is home to 25 megalithic stone ‘boxes’, weighing between 70 to 100 tons…

Part of the megalithic boxes, the 30-ton lids were made of the same blocks of stone. Upon discovery, some of these were blown open with the aid of gunpowder, only to find the inside of these giant boxes empty. Researchers have no idea what their actual purpose was, or how these giant boxes were made thousands of years ago…

Interestingly, most of these boxes are made of rose granite, an extremely hard rock mined at a quarry located about 800 kilometers from Saqqara while other boxes were made from an even harder material, diorite, found even further away from Saqqara.

The precision of the boxes is another characteristics that has left researchers or anyone who visits the place, baffled, with deviations registering in the thousandths of an inch.

Extreme precision, thousands of years ago.

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