CAIRO: Following a government decision, EgyptAir will ask passengers arriving in the country to submit a negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival.
In a statement, the airline said that the move will take effect from Sept. 1 and is within the framework of government efforts to combat coronavirus.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly recently announced that the Supreme Committee for the Management of the New Coronavirus Crisis decided to impose examination tests on passengers arriving from abroad.
Waheed Assem, a board member of the Tourist Chambers, said while the government decision has caused controversy in the tourism industry, he remains optimistic about the outcome.
“We are now living in an era of coexistence with the virus until a vaccine is found, produced and distributed. Until that time comes, countries will carefully devise new plans to protect themselves from the collapse of their health sectors from a second wave of the virus,” he said.
He added that Ukraine, one of the largest tourism markets in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, has also asked incoming passengers to present PCR results.
Testing is also performed for passengers for a $50 fee in three well-known airports in the country.
Assem said the policy will only have a minimal effect on Egyptian hotels, but would increase the number of passengers arriving in the country as health and safety fears are alleviated.
Ashraf Noyer, head of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, said that passenger entry in airports will be prohibited unless a negative PCR result is presented 72 hours before arrival.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s parliament on Monday evening passed a bill postponing a vote on the budget by four months, thus avoiding another general election after three polls in less than a year.
Emerging as the biggest party in a March election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud formed a coalition with Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, bringing Israel out of the longest political crisis in its history.
The agreement between the two parties stipulated that the government put together a two-year budget.
But Likud proposed voting on two budgets — a change rejected by Gantz.
Netanyahu announced on Sunday night that he had accepted a compromise solution by a coalition lawmaker that would postpone adoption of the budget.
On Monday night, lawmakers voted by 67 to 37 in favor in the second and third readings of the bill, thereby postponing adoption of the budget by 120 days.
The budget was supposed to be passed before Tuesday.
The vote in favor of postponing the decision on the budget avoided a dissolution of parliament, effectively bringing an end to the threat of yet another election.
But the substance of the dispute between Netanyahu and Gantz remains unresolved.

CAIRO: Protests have resumed in Libya’s capital Tripoli against the Government of National Accord.

The demonstrations on Monday follow angry protests on Sunday against deteriorating living conditions.

Protesters in Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square chanted for the head of the UN-backed GNA, Fayez Al-Sarraj, to stand down, Al Arabiya reported.

Earlier Monday, the UN mission to Libya called for an “immediate and thorough investigation” into the use of excessive force from pro-GNA security forces at Sunday’s protests.

Libya is divided between two rival administrations, with the GNA controlling Tripoli and the west and the House of Representatives holding sway in the east.

GAZA: Gaza reported its first cases of COVID-19 in the general population on Monday, as authorities confirmed four infections at a refugee camp and security forces declared a full lockdown for 48 hours.
The four cases were from a single family, according to a government statement.
The closure would affect the entire Gaza Strip, according to an official from Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the territory.
Until Monday the 360 sq. km. coastal strip, which is home to two million Palestinians living in densely packed cities, towns and refugee camps, had reported no infections outside quarantine centers set up for people returning home from abroad.

AL-MUKALLA: Several high-ranking Houthi military commanders were killed and numerous others injured when Arab coalition forces bombed a convoy in northern Yemen, military officials said on Monday.

Rabia Al-Qurashi, Yemeni army spokesman in Jouf province, told Arab News that militia chiefs, including Houthi minister of defense Mohammed Al-Atefi, were visiting Al-Khanjer military camp in Khab and Al-Sha’af district on Saturday when coalition warplanes struck, leaving a number of commanders dead, dozens wounded, and six vehicles destroyed.

“The fate of Houthi minister of defense is unknown. But the warplanes caused carnage among Houthi fighters,” Al-Qurashi said.

Houthi official media on Monday mourned the death of Gen. Azi Salah Mutleq Dahwa, a senior officer at the 6th Military Region, and Gen. Ruhallah Zaid Ali Musleh, a Houthi military ideologue and the son of a founding member of the Houthi movement.

Al-Qurashi said that the two commanders were killed in Jouf on Saturday and the Houthis had delayed mourning them in order to avoid undermining their fighters’ morale, predicting that the group would announce the death of other senior commanders in the coming days.

Hundreds of Houthis have been killed since early last week in fierce clashes with government forces and as a result of Saudi-led airstrikes in the provinces of Jouf, Marib, and Al-Bayda.

Despite denying suffering heavy losses, the Iran-backed Houthis have recently buried dozens of their fighters in different areas under their control in northern Yemen.

Also, in Jouf province, army troops and allied tribesmen, backed by coalition airpower, attacked Houthis in different locations east of Hazem, the capital of Jouf province.

Al-Qurashi added that loyalists liberated several areas in Al-Sabagh after killing and wounding a large number of Houthis. Local commanders said the aim of the current ground assault on the edges of Hazem was to pile military pressure on Houthis who had seized control of the strategic town.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s prime minister designate, Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, said that all Yemeni parties had constructively engaged in continuing discussions toward the formation of a new government under the terms of the Riyadh Agreement.

According to the official Saba news agency, Saeed briefed lawmakers in Riyadh about progress on announcing a new government, stressing that the talks were also targeted at lobbying all Yemeni parties behind quick implementation of the Riyadh Agreement and supporting the return of peace and stability to Aden and other Yemeni provinces.

Also, in Riyadh, the premier on Sunday instructed the new governor of Aden, Ahmed Hamid Lamlis, and the city’s chief of security, Ahmed Mohammed Al-Hamedi, to make the revival of state bodies and the restoration of peace their top priorities, pledging his government’s full support to them.

Under the Riyadh Agreement, Aden’s governor and security chief would return to Aden as a military committee began moving military units and heavy weapons from Aden. Within a month, the PM designate will name his government and will also return to Aden.

The agreement defused tensions between the internationally recognized government and the separatist Southern Transitional Council.