Magnitude 5.6 earthquake strikes near Suez, felt across Cairo and the Middle East, with no casualties reported

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake rattled northern Egypt in the early hours of Monday, 3 August 2026, waking residents across the capital and several neighbouring countries. Egypt's National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) located the epicentre 38 kilometres north of the city of Suez, roughly 120 kilometres east of Cairo, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) registered the quake at magnitude 5.4, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 5.3.

Immediate impact and damage

The Egyptian Ministry of Health activated its emergency plan and convened a central crisis team in the new administrative capital, maintaining continuous contact with rescue services across all governorates. Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar ordered all state hospitals to raise their alert level and verify stocks of medicines, medical supplies, blood, and oxygen. By Monday morning the ministry confirmed that the health situation remained stable and no injuries had been reported.

The Egyptian Red Crescent also activated its emergency response plan in the affected governorates. It received several reports, including one of a balcony collapse at a residence in Suez province. A building in the Rod al-Farag area of northern Cairo partially collapsed, but no injuries resulted from either incident. The Red Crescent urged residents to avoid old buildings and any structures showing signs of damage.

Avoid buildings showing structural damage and follow official updates while authorities continue to assess the situation.

How far the shaking was felt

Tremors were felt across a wide arc. In Egypt, residents of Cairo, Suez, Ismailia, Port Said, and cities throughout the Nile Delta reported being jolted awake. People in Alexandria, roughly 200 kilometres northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast, also felt the shaking. Beyond Egypt's borders, residents in Israel, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, and Lebanon reported feeling the earthquake. Many Android phone users received an automatic earthquake alert while the ground was still shaking.

We have so far documented five aftershocks, all of them light, the strongest being magnitude 3.

Sherif al Hady, head of the seismology department at NRIAG, told the Egyptian channel Extra News that five aftershocks had been recorded by Monday morning, all of them light. The strongest aftershock reached magnitude 3.

Seismic context

Egypt regularly experiences earthquakes, though they are typically of low to moderate magnitude. The Gulf of Suez, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Red Sea region are the country's most seismically active zones, lying along the boundary where the African and Arabian tectonic plates are pulling apart. The deadliest earthquake in Egypt's modern history struck Cairo in October 1992. That magnitude 5.8 tremor killed more than 500 people and displaced thousands.