Rockets from Gaza apparently targeting Israel landed across the border in Egypt yesterday amid tensions after the deaths of policemen on the border and protests outside Israel’s embassy.
Tensions between the Jewish state and the most populous Arab nation have surged since the deaths on Thursday of the police officers, killed as Israeli troops pursued militants responsible for deadly attacks near Eilat.
“Several rockets from the Gaza Strip landed this morning in Egyptian territory in the region west of the Rafah terminal, without causing casualties,” reports said.
A security official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the report, but said the rockets could have been fired by mistake.
The Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad said they had lobbed rockets at an Israeli army post near Kerem Shalom on the Israel-Gaza border, 2km from the Egyptian frontier.
Tensions in and around the Gaza Strip have soared since Thursday, when militants staged a series of bloody shooting attacks in the Negev desert, killing eight Israelis and prompting a wave of bloody tit-for-tat exchanges.
It also sparked a diplomatic crisis with Egypt after Cairo said five policemen were killed by Israeli fire as soldiers pursued gunmen involved in the Negev ambushes.
Egyptian state media reported on Saturday that the government had decided to recall its envoy to Tel Aviv and later said a senior Israeli envoy was summoned by the foreign minister to receive a protest note.
Israel said it had received no notification of the decision to withdraw the envoy.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Jewish state “regrets” the deaths of the soldiers and would probe the killings and share the results with the Egyptian authorities.
However, Egypt dismissed the apology as insufficient as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo overnight to vent their anger. The number trickled down to 200 by yesterday afternoon.
Ahmed Shehat became a hero to an exultant crowd of Egyptians and many more online when he hauled down the Star of David flag atop Israel’s embassy in Cairo.
More than 1,000 people protested outside the Israeli embassy overnight and let off celebratory fireworks when Shehat clambered to the top floor of a high-rise housing the mission, replacing the flag with an Egyptian one.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from
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