Israel’s strike on Rafah gripped the attention of the nation’s talking heads last night, as the Israeli military prepared for a ground invasion of the southernmost town in Gaza. “An Israeli attack on Rafah —- where about 1.3 mn displaced Palestinians live in cramped conditions — would spell out massacres and bloodbaths,” Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi said (watch, runtime: 4:03).

“We have entered a critical phase of this conflict,” writer and political analyst Abdel Moneim Saeed told El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 5:40). It’s likely that Western powers will remain complicit in the crisis and they won’t take any measures that would prevent the invasion from going ahead or dissuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his plan, Saeed added.

AND YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED ECON COVERAGE- The EGP 180 bn support package President Abdel Fattah El Sisi introduced last week was an important move to help the low earners, but the most important step forward will be unifying the official and parallel market exchange rates, El Hadidi said (watch, runtime: 1:36). “No matter how much you raise wages, it will never be enough to catch up with soaring inflation,” she said (watch, runtime: 0:58).

A devaluation must be coupled with reforms: “Without real economic reforms, the measures being taken — such as devaluing the EGP and raising interest rates — will be in vain,” said Catalyst Partners Chairman Maged Shawky (LinkedIn) in an interview on Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 5:11). “We are waiting for the foreign exchange market to be regulated. We are in a state of paralysis. The black market is closed and the official market does not meet the needs of manufacturers and importers.” El Hadidi added.

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