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Egypt's Sisi wins landslide re-election amid growing crisis

Election authorities on Monday said that three of the CC polls ended on December 12
89.6 percent of ballots were captured during the day

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won a landslide victory in national elections this week, claiming a third term in power even as the country struggles with economic difficulties and regional instability.
Election authorities said on Monday that Sisi captured 89.6 percent of the ballots in the three days of voting that ended on December 12.
Voter turnout reached an unprecedented 66.8 percent, officials said.
The lopsided victory is no surprise, despite growing public frustration. Sisi faces only marginal opposition candidates as he extends his decade-long rule in the Arab world's most populous country.
Egypt is now staring at its worst financial slump in decades as tensions flare in neighboring Gaza. The currency has depreciated, inflation has soared to more than 35 percent, and poverty has been widespread even before the recent crisis.
CC's next six-year term begins in April. He has said it will be his last under constitutional term limits, though whether he resigns may prove uncertain because of his consolidated powers.

Malta-flagged container ship sees 3 explosions off Yemen towards its port quarter – Ambre

CAIRO: British maritime security firm Ambre said on Tuesday that a Malta-flagged container ship had seen three explosions towards its port quarters 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Mocha, Yemen. The vessel master was heard on VHF calling a coalition warship, the firm added. Ambrey said it understood that three missiles were fired from the direction of Yemen's Taiz governorate.

A nearby ship sighted a small boat, about 50 meters (160 ft) length, and with two lights, within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the incident site, the firm added.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants, who control much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, have stepped up attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea to protest Israel's war on Gaza. "It was assessed that this particular vessel was not Israel-affiliated, but other vessels in the operator's fleet regularly called on Israel and this affiliation may have been sufficient to target it," Ambrey said. Several shipping lines suspended operations through the Red Sea in response to the attacks, instead taking longer voyages around Africa. The Houthis have vowed to continue their offensive until Israel ends the conflict in Gaza and have warned that they will attack US warships if the militia group itself is targeted.

Killing of Hamas deputy leader in Beirut raises risk of Gaza war spreading

BEIRUT/CAIRO/GAZA, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Israel killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanese and Palestinian security sources said, raising the potential risk of the war in Gaza spreading well beyond the Palestinian enclave.

Arouri, 57, was the first senior Hamas political leader to be assassinated since Israel launched a shattering air and ground offensive against the group almost three months ago after its shock assault and rampage into Israeli towns.

Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon's southern border since the war in Gaza began in October.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has warned Israel against carrying out any assassinations on Lebanese soil, vowing a "severe reaction."

Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Marj with missiles, following Arouri's killing.

Israel has long accused Arouri of lethal attacks on its citizens, but a Hamas official said he was also "at the heart of negotiations" conducted by Qatar and Egypt over the outcome of the Gaza war and the release of Hamas-held Israeli hostages.

Israel neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the killing, but its military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were in a high state of readiness and prepared for any scenario.

"The most important thing to say tonight is that we are focused and remain focused on fighting Hamas," he said when asked by a reporter about the reports of Arouri's killing.

'WAITING FOR MARTYRDOM'

Israel had accused Arouri, a co-founder of the Hamas' military wing, the Izz-el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, of ordering and supervising Hamas attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for years.

"I am waiting for martyrdom (death) and I think I have lived too long," Arouri said in August 2023, alluding to Israeli threats to eliminate Hamas leaders whether in Gaza or abroad.

Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Iran, a major supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, said Arouri's killing would "undoubtedly ignite another surge in the veins of resistance and the motivation to fight against the Zionist occupiers, not only in Palestine but also in the region and among all freedom-seekers worldwide."

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah and other towns in the West Bank to condemn Arouri's killing, chanting, "Revenge, revenge, Qassam!"

Iranian-backed Houthis rebels in Yeman have vowed to continue their attacks on shipping in the Rea Sea until Israel halts the conflict in Gaza, and warned that it would attack U.S. warships if the militia group itself was targeted.

Houthi militants fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the southern Red Sea, though no damage was reported, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said late on Tuesday.

Britain's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Authority reported up to three explosions near a merchant vessel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, east of Eritrea's Assab, with no reports of damage.

The Gaza war was triggered by a shock cross-border Hamas assault on Israeli towns on Oct. 7 in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 hostages spirited back to Gaza.

The Gaza health ministry said 207 people had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recorded Palestinian death toll to 22,185 in nearly three months of war in Gaza.

Israel says it tries to avoid harm to civilians and blames Hamas for embedding fighters among them, an accusation Hamas denies.

The Israeli targeting of Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital last November stoked global alarm over the fate of civilians and patients who were inside.

Israel said Hamas used tunnels beneath the hospital as a headquarters and was using its patients as shields.

A U.S. official said on Tuesday, citing declassified U.S. intelligence, that U.S. spy agencies assessed that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had used Al Shifa to command forces and hold some hostages but largely evacuated it before Israeli troops entered.

Israeli bombardments have engulfed Gaza's 2.3 million residents in a humanitarian disaster in which thousands have been left destitute and threatened by famine due to a lack of food supplies.

HAMAS RESPONDS TO CEASEFIRE PROPOSAL

Shortly before Arouri's killing, Hamas' paramount leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is also based outside Gaza, said the movement had delivered its response to an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal.

He reiterated that Hamas' conditions entailed "a complete cessation" of Israel's offensive in exchange for further releases of hostages.

Israel believes 129 hostages remain in Gaza after some were released during a brief truce in late November and others were killed during air strikes and rescue or escape attempts.

Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it has wiped out Hamas but it is unclear what it plans to do with the enclave should it succeed, and where that leaves the prospect of an independent Palestinian state.

In Washington, the State Department denounced as "inflammatory and irresponsible" statements by Israeli cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.

Such statements underscore fears among some in the Arab world that Israel wants to drive Palestinians out of land where they envision a future state, repeating the mass dispossession of Palestinians when Israel was created in 1948.

Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Arafat Barbakh in Gazaq, Maayan Lubell and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, and Maggie Fick in London; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Howard Goller and Michael Perry; Editing by Richard Chang and Raju Gopalakrishnan