TRIPOLI: Libya's Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah said on Monday the parliament's election law was flawed and written to serve specific candidates as he said he would announce whether he will run for president “at the crucial moment.”
Allies of Dbeibah told Reuters a week ago that he would run, despite having pledged when he was installed as prime minister of the interim unity government that he would not take part in the coming election.
“They come out with laws designed for personalities and we cannot be satisfied with this flawed law,” he said at a rally in Tripoli.
Analysts see Dbeibah as a possible frontrunner for president after he instituted a series of populist measures including investment in overlooked towns and cash payouts for newlyweds.
“At the crucial moment, I will announce my position on this election,” he told the crowd.
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi who was toppled in 2011, announced his candidacy on Sunday. Eastern commander Khalifa Haftar is also expected to run, as is the parliament speaker Aguila Saleh.
Libya's rival factions have still not agreed the rules for the election less than six weeks before the Dec. 24 voting date set through a UN-backed peace roadmap last year.
The roadmap called for Libya's political entities to agree a constitutional basis for the vote and to then hold both parliamentary and presidential elections on the same date.
However, there was no agreement on the constitution and the only election law that has been issued - by the parliament speaker in controversial circumstances - set Dec. 24 as the voting date only for a first round of the presidential election.
The second round of that vote and the parliamentary election would follow in January or February, according to that law, which also said that officeholders wanting to stand should step away from their posts three months before polling day.
The High State Council, a political entity whose role was enshrined by a political agreement in 2015 that was part of an earlier peace process, has rejected the law.
Libya’s Dbeibah says election law flawed
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Libya’s Dbeibah says election law flawed
- Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi who was toppled in 2011, announced his candidacy on Sunday
Fighting rocks Gaza as major powers push for truce
- The Gaza war raged on unabated, with the Israeli military reporting its fighter jets struck around “65 terror targets” across Gaza
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Heavy fighting rocked Gaza on Tuesday after G7 and Arab powers urged both Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
Mediator Qatar said it had yet to see statements from either side “that give us a lot of confidence,” but the foreign ministry said Doha was “working with both sides on proposals on the table.”
Washington said it would seek a UN Security Council resolution to back the three-phase roadmap which Biden presented last Friday as Israel’s plan, even as the war has ground on.
Under the proposal, fighting would stop for an initial six weeks and hostages would be swapped for Palestinian prisoners, ahead of the start of a phase to rebuild Gaza, Biden said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, however, stressed that fighting would only have to cease temporarily to free the captives, and that Israel still plans to destroy Hamas.
A statement from the premier’s office said Israel’s war cabinet was meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday, but no further details were given.
A source with knowledge of the truce negotiations said CIA chief Bill Burns would be “returning to Doha... to continue working with mediators on reaching an agreement between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.”
Biden told Qatar’s emir that “Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire,” and “confirmed Israel’s readiness to move forward” with the terms he set out last week.
Hamas, which has long ruled the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people, said Friday it viewed Biden’s outline “positively.”
But a senior Hamas official in Beirut on Tuesday accused Israel of seeking “endless” truce negotiations, and repeated the group’s position rejecting any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas has stuck to that position in months of intermittent talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
Those three countries have now urged both sides to agree a truce deal, as have Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
The Group of Seven countries also gave their full endorsement, arguing the plan would also bring vastly more aid into Gaza and “an enduring end to the crisis, with Israel’s security interests and Gazan civilian safety assured.”
“We call on Hamas to accept this deal, that Israel is ready to move forward with, and we urge countries with influence over Hamas to help ensure that it does so,” said the G7 which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland also urged both sides to back the proposal, writing on X that “there is no alternative — and any delay, every day simply costs more lives.”
The Gaza war raged on unabated, with the Israeli military reporting its fighter jets struck around “65 terror targets” across Gaza and that troops located tunnel shafts and weapons in the southern city of Rafah.
It also said warplanes and ground forces were attacking targets in the Bureij area in central Gaza.
Four bodies were retrieved from a bombed house in Bureij, and three more from a destroyed building in Gaza City, the civil defense agency said.
Gaza’s government media office said another Israeli strike killed eight police officers in Deir Al-Balah.
The White House insisted Monday that the truce plan was Israel’s own and not drafted by Washington to put pressure on its key ally.
However, Biden also took a swipe in an interview with Time magazine at Netanyahu, who is leading a shaky right-wing coalition government and has been fighting corruption claims in court.
Asked if he believed the Israeli premier was dragging out the war for political self-preservation, Biden said: “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
Biden also said that he and Netanyahu were at odds over the need to create a Palestinian state.
“My major disagreement with Netanyahu is, what happens after... Gaza’s over? What, what does it go back to? Do Israeli forces go back in?” he asked.
“The answer is, if that’s the case, it can’t work.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday told Netanyahu in a phone call that the Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas that rules parts of the occupied West Bank should “ensure the governance” of Gaza after the war.
Macron said the proposed truce deal “should reopen a credible perspective for the implementation of a two-state solution, the only one able to provide Israel with the necessary security guarantees and to respond to the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians.”
Netanyahu’s office said he told Macron Israel’s “fundamental objective,” in addition to securing the hostages’ release, was to eliminate Hamas, and that it was determined to do so.
On the political front, Slovenia’s parliament on Tuesday recognized the State of Palestine, following fellow European Union members Ireland and Spain as well as Norway last month in a move that enraged Israel.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
The Israeli military on Monday confirmed the latest deaths of captives, naming them as Nadav Popplewell, 51, and three men in their 80s, Chaim Perry, Yoram Metzger and Amiram Cooper.
The Hostages Families Forum group, which has joined a series of mass protests demanding a truce deal, said the men “should have returned alive to their country and their families.”
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 36,550 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Some 55 percent of Gaza’s structures have been destroyed, damaged or “possibly damaged,” according to the United Nations satellite analysis agency.
Aid group Oxfam said displaced Gazans are living in “appalling” conditions, with children sometimes going for a whole day without food and thousands sharing the same toilet.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk also threw his support behind the truce plan, saying of the war that “we don’t even know how to describe it anymore.”
“It is beyond precarious. It is beyond catastrophic.”
Famine is possibly underway in northern Gaza despite recent aid efforts, a new report warns
JERUSALEM: An independent group of experts warned Tuesday that it’s possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza but that the war between Israel and Hamas and restrictions on humanitarian access have impeded the data collection to prove it.
“It is possible, if not likely,” the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, said about famine in Gaza.
Concerns about deadly hunger have been high in recent months and spiked after the head of the World Food Program last month said northern Gaza had entered “full-blown famine” after nearly seven months of war. Experts at the UN agency later said Cindy McCain was expressing a personal opinion.
An area is considered to be in famine when three things occur: 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30 percent of the children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.
That’s according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a collection of UN agencies, governments and other bodies that in March warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza.
Tuesday’s report by FEWS NET is the first technical assessment by an international organization saying that famine is possibly occurring in northern Gaza.
Funded by the United States Agency for International Development, FEWS NET is an internationally recognized authority on famine that provides evidence-based and timely early warning information for food insecurity. It also helps inform decisions on humanitarian responses in some of the world’s most food insecure countries.
But for a formal declaration of famine, the data must be there.
Such a declaration could be used as evidence at the International Criminal Court as well as at the International Court of Justice, where Israel faces allegations of genocide.
The report cautioned that data collection would likely be impeded as long as the war goes on. It said people — including children — are dying of hunger-related causes across the territory and that those conditions will likely persist until at least July, if there isn’t a fundamental change in how food aid is distributed.
The report also cautioned that efforts to increase aid into Gaza are insufficient, and urged Israel’s government to act urgently.
The UN and international aid agencies for months have said not enough food or other humanitarian supplies are entering Gaza, and Israel faces mounting pressure from top ally the US and others to let in more aid.
Israel has repeatedly denied there is famine underway in Gaza and rejected allegations it has used hunger as a weapon in its war against the militant Hamas group. It has opened a number of new crossings into Gaza in recent months, saying they helped increase the flow of aid.
But Israel has also been expanding its offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, once the main hub of humanitarian aid operations. That invasion has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing hunger.
The Israeli military, which is responsible for the crossings into Gaza, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the FEWS NET report.
As Gaza hostage crisis drags on for Israel, here’s what we know
- Of those still in captivity, Israel has pronounced 43 dead, saying their remains are being held by militants
JERUSALEM: Israel’s announcement that four more hostages died in Hamas captivity, including three men in their 80s, stoked fears that time is running out for captives in Gaza who are still alive.
It set off protests across Israel calling for an immediate ceasefire deal that would secure the release of the dozens of remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
About eight months into the Israel-Hamas war, here’s where things stand, according to official Israeli figures:
HOSTAGES TAKEN OCT. 7 AND EXCHANGED
Israel’s hostage crisis began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 back to Gaza.
Of the hostages taken, 105 were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November, in an exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. The released hostages included 81 Israeli citizens and 24 foreign nationals, most of them Thais.
Four female hostages were released prior to this ceasefire through deals brokered by the US and other mediators.
HOSTAGES REMAINING IN GAZA
After the November ceasefire, more than 120 hostages remained in Gaza, including four Israelis captured years earlier. Two of them, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, were Israeli soldiers believed to have been killed in a 2014 war.
HOSTAGES DEAD IN GAZA
Of those still in captivity, Israel has pronounced 43 dead, saying their remains are being held by militants. Some are believed to have been killed during the Oct. 7 attack. The cause of death for others is unknown, although Hamas has claimed some were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israeli officials believe that the number of dead hostages could be higher.
HOSTAGES NOT DECLARED DEAD IN GAZA
There are about 80 hostages left in Gaza who Israel has not pronounced dead.
That includes about 15 women and 2 children under the age of 5 — Kfir and Ariel Bibas, whose mother, Shiri Bibas, is also still in captivity. Two men in their 80s are also among the captives.
Also included is Hersh Polin-Goldberg, a 23-year-old American-Israeli who was taken hostage at a music festival where over 300 people were killed. Polin-Goldberg’s parents have led a global campaign seeking their son’s release and drawing attention to the plight of the hostages. Hamas released a video of Polin-Goldberg in April. Badly wounded in the Oct. 7 attack, his left hand was amputated. But the video marked the first sign he was alive.
Another hostage believed to be alive is 26-year-old Noa Argamani, whose mother Liora Argamani has stage 4 breast cancer and hopes to see her daughter alive once more.
DEAD HOSTAGES BROUGHT BACK TO ISRAEL
Israeli troops have recovered from Gaza the bodies of at least 16 hostages, according to Israeli government figures.
The bodies of two hostages, including female soldier Noa Marciano, were brought back from Gaza in November. So were the bodies of three hostages killed by friendly fire in December.
The bodies of seven hostages, two women and five men, were recovered in Gaza last month.
HOSTAGES FREED THROUGH MILITARY RESCUES
The Israeli military says it has rescued three hostages in Gaza.
It brought 1 home in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.
Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town in the Gaza Strip. Airstrikes carried out to provide cover during the raid killed more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Syria says no dialogue with Turkiye before Ankara announces plans to withdraw its troops
DAMASCUS: Syria’s foreign minister said Tuesday that any dialogue between Syria and Turkiye should only take place after Ankara announces that it will withdraw its troops from all Syrian territories it controls.
Faisal Mekdad made the comments during a joint news conference with Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, after Turkiye threatened in recent days to act against Kurdish-led authorities in Syria’s northeast as they prepare to hold municipal elections next week.
Turkiye has launched three major cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and controls some territories in the north. Ankara was a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters who have been trying to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power since the conflict began in March 2011.
Attempts at reconciliation between Syria and Turkiye have failed to achieve progress since early 2023 despite meetings in Moscow between the countries’ foreign ministers and defense ministers.
“The main condition to any Syrian-Turkish dialogue is for Ankara to announce its readiness to withdraw from our lands that it occupies,” Mekdad said. “We do not negotiate with those who occupy our land.”
Bagheri Kani said Tehran has always supported territorial integrity of all regional countries, particularly Syria. “We have supported and will continue to support Syria in its battle against terrorism,” he said, in reference to Syrian insurgent groups that Damascus and Tehran consider terrorist organizations.
Iran and Russia, main backers of Assad who took part in Syria’s conflict that has killed half a million people, have tried to mediate between Turkiye and Syria in the past. Over the years, Syrian government forces have taken control of most parts of Syria with their help.
On Turkiye’s support to Syrian insurgent groups in the north, Mekdad said: “It is not permissible for the Turkish occupation of Syrian lands to continue to support terrorist organizations in northern Syria.”
Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara won’t hesitate to act against Kurdish-led groups in northern Syria that it accuses of links to outlawed Kurdish militants, if they proceed with plans to hold local elections in the region on June 11.
Pro-government Syrian media outlets said Bagheri Kani met earlier Tuesday at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus with leaders of Syria-based Palestinian factions. They gave no further details.
Israel’s Bedouin fight eviction in desert region
RAS JRABAH: Plans to expand Israel’s desert city of Dimona, known as the cradle of the national nuclear program, are stoking fears among nearby Bedouin villagers for their traditional way of life.
When Hassan Hawashla looks out his window, he sees rows of identical modern apartment blocks, and construction cranes building more, as Dimona spreads into the surrounding Negev desert.
“Every day when I look at this city, it’s getting closer and closer to us,” said Hawashla, 40, who himself is among the construction laborers working in Dimona.
His own Bedouin village of Ras Jrabah is an informal settlement of tin-roofed houses and a few concrete buildings, crisscrossed by dusty dirt roads and home to about 500 people.
Any new construction there gets promptly torn down by Israeli authorities who object to any permanent structures being built and want to move the entire village, Hawashla said.
Dimona, located 80 km south of Jerusalem and with a population of about 36,000, meanwhile has ambitious plans to nearly double in size, local government documents show.
Israel’s Bedouin, a nomadic Arab ethnic group, see it as yet another threat after long living on the margins of Israeli society, often in poverty and with few opportunities.
About 30 percent of the Bedouin population live in dozens of similar villages in the Negev desert, which is known as Naqab in Arabic, says the Israeli nonprofit group Bimkom.
Another Bedouin village, Wadi Al-Khalil, was wiped off the map last month after Israeli authorities ordered its demolition to clear space for a highway expansion.
