TUNIS: The European Investment Bank on Tuesday announced grants and loans worth 450 million euros ($480 million) for crisis-hit Tunisia to support small and medium-sized enterprises and infrastructure projects.
The EIB, the European Union’s investment arm, said it was providing “new financial support” to Tunisia, targeting “high-impact projects for the population and the country’s economic and social development.”
The financing will be formalized during the Tunisia Investment Forum to be held on Wednesday and Thursday in Tunis, the bank said in a statement.
The forum will be attended by the EIB’s new vice president in charge of financing in the Maghreb region, Ioannis Tsakiris.
The funding “will play a crucial role in the creation of jobs, stimulating innovation and promoting balanced development to benefit all Tunisians,” Tsakiris said in the statement.
The financing includes a line of credit worth 170 million euros for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, “which make up 90 percent of the country’s businesses and employ 60 percent of the workforce,” according to the bank.
It will also provide 210 million euros to develop the “strategic” route between Tunisia’s second city of Sfax on its eastern coast and the remote, underserved Kasserine area in the west.
A loan of 45 million euros will be granted to finance the ELMED electricity linkage project between Tunisia and Italy.
Tunisia has faced mounting financial woes, with debt levels at 80 percent of its GDP and unemployment and poverty on the rise.
The crisis has been compounded by the power grab staged by President Kais Saied since July 2021.
Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a $2 billion loan have stalled since then, with Saied rejecting reforms demanded by the body.
The crisis has driven thousands of Tunisians to attempt perilous Mediterranean boat crossings in the hope of finding better lives in Europe.
 

BEIRUT:  On Tuesday an Israeli combat drone targeted a motorcycle in the town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon, killing its rider.

It was later revealed that the victim, identified as Saleh Ahmed Mehdi, an employee of the South Lebanon Water Establishment whose daily task is to ensure the continuous water supply to the area, was a civilian and not affiliated with Hezbollah.

The Naqoura attack came hours after Israeli warplanes targeted the Hawsh Al-Sayyid Ali area in the Hermel district of northeastern Lebanon on the border with Syria. This area is near the Al-Qusayr in Syria, where six airstrikes destroyed a convoy of fuel tankers and a facility, both belonging to Hezbollah.

According to a Lebanese security source, the targeted area is “a link between the Lebanese Hermel area and the Syrian town of Al-Qusayr, which Hezbollah took control of during battles alongside the Syrian Army in 2013. The targeted area is more than 143 km from the southern Lebanese border and is known for smuggling operations between Lebanon and Syria.”

The Israeli airstrikes, carried out shortly after midnight on Monday, killed three Hezbollah members, who were officially mourned by the party without mentioning where they were killed, as is customary in all its obituary statements.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, several Syrians were also killed. A Hezbollah building was completely destroyed, and several individuals were injured.

Hezbollah mourned Bilal Wajih Alaa El-Din, born in 1984, from the town of Majdel Selm in southern Lebanon, Abbas Mohammed Nasser, born in 1979, from the town of Tayr Felsay in southern Lebanon, and Hadi Fouad Moussa, born in 1983, from the town of Shebaa in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah responded to the airstrikes by launching 40 rockets from southern Lebanon toward the Galilee panhandle and Upper Galilee.

The party announced that it responded to the Bekaa airstrikes by “bombing the headquarters of the artillery regiment and the armored brigade of the Golan Division 210 in the Yarden barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets.”

Israeli media reported that “firefighting teams are dealing with several fires ignited by rockets in southern Golan and Upper Galilee.”

Hezbollah continued its attacks in the morning by “bombarding an Israeli Army soldiers’ gathering near the Natu’a settlement with suitable weapons. The target was hit directly, resulting in casualties among its members, with some killed and others injured.”

The raids on the Hermel area were “in response to Hezbollah shooting down an Israeli drone in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah and Jabal Rihan on Monday,” according to an Israeli Army spokesperson.

Israel confirmed that a drone belonging to the Israeli Air Force was shot down in the skies of Lebanon. This is the fifth drone to be downed since the start of the war.

Residents of the Fnaidek area in Akkar, northern Lebanon, reported the fall of a rocket during Israeli raids. It is unclear whether the rocket was interceptive or dropped by Israeli aircraft. The explosion destroyed a building under construction and did not result in any human casualties.

Israeli Army spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated that the airstrikes were “in response to Hezbollah’s downing of an Israeli drone that was operating in Lebanese airspace yesterday.”

The raids targeted “a military complex belonging to Unit 4400, which enhances Hezbollah’s logistical capabilities and aims to transport weapons into Lebanon and within it.”