Egypt cancels official New Year celebrations

Egypt’s Ministry of Culture has called off official celebrations of the New Year in solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s attack on the Gaza strip.

The minister’s office said Wednesday state-sponsored events, including a popular concert in the Opera House, were called off because of the massacre on Gaza.

The Information Ministry also called off its major event, a concert by famous Lebanese heartthrob singer, Assi Hilani.

Egyptian state television official Ossama al-Sheikh said on Tuesday that the launch of new channel “Nile Comedy,” set for January 1, would be delayed “out of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”

Images of destruction and death in Gaza have caused outrage around the Arab world and other Arab countries have also called off their celebrations.

Since Israel unleashed its massive aerial attack on Hamas and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, at least 374 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded, Gaza medics say. During the same period, four Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza.

IHT and AFP

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Tags: Gaza Strip, New Year, Palestinian people

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 7:39 am and is filed under Modern Egypt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.