Earthquake strikes eastern Egypt, injuring one; is felt in Israel
Times of Israel · LC · trust 27/100
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook eastern Egypt early Monday and was felt in parts of southern and central Israel, monitors said.
The quake struck about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the city of Suez at 3:00 am (0000 GMT), according to Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, which revised an earlier estimate of 5.2.
The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) measured the earthquake at magnitude 5.4 and said it struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). The US Geological Survey put the shallow tremor at magnitude 5.0, revising down an earlier reading.
Tremors woke people across Cairo and as far as El-Arish, near the border with Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israelis reported feeling tremors in Beersheba and near Jerusalem. Tremors were also registered in Jordan and Lebanon.
Egyptian Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar ordered emergency response plans activated across the country and directed ambulance services to be at “maximum levels of preparedness.”
Authorities said three families were evacuated from a collapsing building in the northern Cairo neighbourhood of Rod al-Farag.
The Egyptian Red Crescent received another report of a collapsed balcony near the quake’s epicenter in Suez.
لحظة وقوع زلزال بقوة 5.6 درجة في مصر قرب السويس #سوشال_سكاي #مصر #زلزال pic.twitter.com/sXkOQQcaNr
— سكاي نيوز عربية (@skynewsarabia) August 3, 2026
The rescue organization urged residents to stay away from old and dilapidated buildings, which are common in many of Egypt’s working-class neighborhoods. Egypt’s health ministry reported only one injury.
Intense earthquakes are uncommon in the northeast African country. The country’s deadliest earthquake in modern history struck in October 1992, when a 5.8-magnitude quake shook the capital, killing over 500 people and displacing thousands.
In Israel, Android users received earthquake alerts early Monday after an internal system registered that numerous devices with the same operating system had shaken at the same time, the Israel Geological Survey said on Facebook, stressing that it was not an official alert from the IDF Home Front Command.
The Android system concluded from the simultaneous shaking that an earthquake was taking place, and warned users in the region, including in Israel, of a 5.9-magnitude rattler, according to the Geological Survey.
The state body added that its own nationwide alert system, dubbed Truaa, “identified the quake in real time, but given its magnitude and the distance from the state’s borders, the system was not supposed to activate warnings to Israelis, even if it was felt in part of Israel.”
The survey added that the Google system had “accidentally identified” a 5.1-magnitude earthquake in Israel on the morning of June 13, 2025, when the Home Front Command triggered a nationwide missile alert to warn that Israel was striking Iran, causing millions of Israelis to fumble for their phones and scramble for shelter.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
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