TRIPOLI: The mayor of Libya’s third-largest city Misrata has been killed by unidentified assailants who abducted him as he returned from an official trip overseas, a security source said on Monday.
Mohamad Eshtewi’s body was found dumped in the street after he was kidnapped after leaving the airport in the western coastal city late on Sunday, the source said.
The city hospital said it had received the mayor’s body bearing gunshot wounds.
His brother was with him in the car and was wounded in the attack, the security source said.
Eshtewi was returning from an official visit to Turkey with other members of the city council, who were all elected in 2014 for four years.
UN envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame on Twitter denounced the killing and expressed his “profound sadness” at the news.
The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord deplored a “cowardly” and “terrorist act” that killed a “symbol of moderation and tolerance,” vowing that those responsible would be brought to justice.
France’s foreign ministry said the killing confirmed “the urgency for a political solution” to the political and security problems plaguing the North African country.
Britain’s ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett, said he was “deeply saddened by (the) senseless murder” of Eshtewi. “He worked hard to serve his people,” Millett said on Twitter.
Home to some 400,000 people, Misrata is considered one of Libya’s safest cities. Its powerful militias played a major role in expelling the Daesh group from the coastal city of Sirte last year.
In October, four people were killed in a suicide bombing claimed by IS at the main court building in Misrata.
Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed former ruler Muammar Qaddafi, with rival authorities and militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.
UN envoy to Libya condemns Misrata mayor’s killing
UN envoy to Libya condemns Misrata mayor’s killing
Halt to MSF work will be ‘catastrophic’ for people of Gaza: MSF chief
- MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a “pretext” to obstruct aid
- “Ceasing MSF activities is going to be catastrophic for the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he said
GENEVA: Israel’s ban on Doctors Without Borders’ humanitarian operation in Gaza spells deeper catastrophe for the Palestinian territory’s people, the head of the medical charity told AFP on Monday.
Israel announced on Sunday that it was terminating all the activities in Gaza and the West Bank by the organization, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.
MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a “pretext” to obstruct aid.
“This is a decision that was made by the Israeli government to restrict humanitarian assistance into Gaza and the West Bank at the most critical time for Palestinians,” MSF secretary-general Christopher Lockyear warned in an interview with AFP at the charity’s Geneva headquarters.
“We are at a moment where Palestinian people need more humanitarian assistance, not less,” he said. “Ceasing MSF activities is going to be catastrophic for the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
MSF has been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in Gaza, particularly since war broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The charity says it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and operates around 20 health centers.
In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations, treated more than 100,000 trauma cases and assisted more than 10,000 infant deliveries.
It also provided more than 700 million liters of water, Lockyear pointed out.
‘Impossible choice’
Israel announced in December that it planned to prevent 37 aid organizations, including MSF, from working in Gaza for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees. The move drew widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.
It had alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the medical charity vehemently denies.
“If Israel has any evidence of such things, then they should share that evidence,” Lockyear said, insisting that “there’s been no proof given to us.”
He decried “an orchestrated campaign to delegitimize us,” calling on other countries to defend efforts to bring desperately-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“They should be speaking to Israel, pressuring Israel to ensure that there is a reverse of any banning of humanitarian organizations.”
Lockyear said MSF, which counts around 1,100 staff inside Gaza, had been trying to engage with Israeli authorities for nearly a year over the requested lists.
But it had been left with “an impossible choice,” he said.
“We’ve been forced to choose between the safety and security of our staff and being able to reach patients.”
‘Can only get worse’
The organization said it decided not to hand over staff names “because Israeli authorities failed to provide the concrete assurances required to guarantee our staff’s safety, protect their personal data, and uphold the independence of our medical operation.”
Lockyear insisted that was a “very rational” decision, pointing out that 15 MSF staff had been killed in Gaza during the war, out of more than 500 humanitarian workers and more than 1,700 medical workers killed in the Strip.
Lockyear highlighted that without independent humanitarian organizations in Gaza, an already “catastrophic” situation “can only get worse.”
“We need to increase massively the humanitarian assistance that’s going into Gaza,” he said, “not restrict it, not block it.”
