CAIRO: Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah on Friday promised to draft a new election law to solve the political crisis in the North African country.
A day after surviving an alleged assassination attempt, Al-Dbeibah told Libya Al Ahrar TV a bill would be presented to the House of Representatives then transferred to the presidential council for ratifying.
Libya was meant to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in December, but arguments between factions and bodies of state over how they should take place meant the process collapsed days before the vote.
Nearly 3 million Libyans signed up to vote in the December election, and the political jostling and delays that have followed have infuriated many.
Hired hitmen
The interview came after an assassination attempt which Al-Dbeibah said he escaped unharmed early on Thursday.
Al-Dbeibah said two mercenaries were hired to kill him but he did not elaborate on who was behind the alleged attack. Reuters has been unable to independently verify the details or speak to witnesses.
Libya’s political rifts deepened after the parliament spokesperson declared Fathi Bashagha as the new interim prime minister on Thursday, a move which Al-Dbeibah rejected.
“The Parliament’s selection of a new government is another attempt to enter Tripoli by force,,” Al-Dbeibah said in the interview.
He said the parliament’s move was similar to what happened in 2019 when the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar and his army attacked Tripoli.
Libya has enjoyed little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Qaddafi, and it split after a 2014 election between warring eastern and western factions, a conflict the elections were meant to help resolve.
Libyan PM promises new election law to solve political crisis
https://arab.news/rpvxd
Libyan PM promises new election law to solve political crisis
- Libya was meant to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in December
Palestinians attempt to use Gaza’s Rafah Border crossing amidst delays
- The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening
CAIRO: Palestinians on both sides of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which opened last week for the first time since 2024, were making their way to the border on Sunday in hopes of crossing, one of the main requirements for the US-backed ceasefire. The opening comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, though the major subject of discussion will be Iran, his office said.
The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening. Over the first four days of the crossing’s opening, just 36 Palestinians requiring medical care were allowed to leave for Egypt, plus 62 companions, according to United Nations data.
Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza are seeking to leave for medical care that they say is not available in the war-shattered territory. The few who have succeeded in crossing described delays and allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces and other groups involved in the crossing, including and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab.
A group of Palestinian patients and wounded gathered Sunday morning in the courtyard of a Red Crescent hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, before making their way to the Rafah crossing with Egypt for treatment abroad, family members told The Associated Press.
Amjad Abu Jedian, who was injured in the war, was scheduled to leave Gaza for medical treatment on the first day of the crossing’s reopening, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, his mother, Raja Abu Jedian, said. Abu Jedian was shot by an Israeli sniper while he was building traditional bathrooms in the central Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, she said.
On Saturday, his family received a call from the World Health Organization notifying them that he is included in the group that will travel on Sunday, she said.
“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” she said. “We want the Israeli military not to burden them.”
The Israeli defense branch that oversees the operation of the crossing did not immediately confirm the opening.
A group of Palestinians also arrived Sunday morning at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing border to return to the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television reported.
Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first few days of the crossing’s operation described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab. A European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing, and Israel has its screening facility some distance away.
The crossing was reopened on Feb. 2 as part of a fragile ceasefire deal that stopped the war between Israel and Hamas. Amid confusion around the reopening, the Rafah crossing was closed Friday and Saturday.
The Rafah crossing, an essential lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, was the only crossing not controlled by Israel prior to the war. Israel seized the Palestinian side of Rafah in May 2024, though traffic through the crossing was heavily restricted even before that.
Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day and 50 medical patients — along with two companions for each — would be allowed to leave, but far fewer people than expected have crossed in both directions.
