ALGIERS: An Algerian oil tanker set sail Thursday for power-hungry Lebanon, official media said, with 30,000 tons of fuel destined to restart turbines in the country grappling with years of economic meltdown.
Clashes in Lebanon’s south since last October has only added to the troubles of a country which is politically largely rudderless, whose economy collapsed five years ago and where power blackouts are routine.
Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui spoke by telephone with his Lebanese counterpart, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, “to inform him of the decision taken by President Tebboune to stand beside brother Lebanon... and immediately provide a quantity of fuel to make the power plant function and re-establish electricity,” Algeria’s official APS agency reported.
Other shipments are expected to follow the initial delivery but no details have been released.
Algeria’s President Abdelmajid Tebboune took the decision to help Lebanon after Lebanon’s state-run electricity company on Saturday said its turbines would stop due to lack of fuel.
Lebanese, long used to power cuts lasting almost an entire day, have relied on small private electricity generators.
Algeria is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
In August, 2022, another OPEC member, Iraq, said it had agreed to renew a one-year deal to provide Lebanon with one million tons of fuel for its power plants in exchange for in-kind services.
The initial deal with Iraq enabled Lebanon’s power stations to produce one to two hours of electricity per day.
Algerian fuel tanker on mercy mission to power-short Lebanon
https://arab.news/5542w
Algerian fuel tanker on mercy mission to power-short Lebanon
- Algeria’s President Abdelmajid Tebboune took the decision to help Lebanon after Lebanon’s state-run electricity company on Saturday said its turbines would stop due to lack of fuel
- Lebanese, long used to power cuts lasting almost an entire day, have relied on small private electricity generators
Israel confirms ban on 37 NGOs in Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday said 37 humanitarian agencies supplying aid in Gaza had not met a deadline to meet “security and transparency standards,” and would be banned from the territory, despite an international outcry.
The international NGOs, which had been ordered to disclose detailed information on their Palestinian staff, will now be required to cease operations by March 1.
The United Nations has warned that this will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“Organizations that have failed to meet required security and transparency standards will have their licenses suspended,” Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said in a statement.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the ban include Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to a ministry list.
In MSF’s case, Israel accused it of having two employees who were members of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
MSF said this week the request to share a list of its staff “may be in violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law” and said it “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity.”
‘Critical requirement’
NRC spokesperson Shaina Low told AFP its local staff are “exhausted” and international staff “bring them an extra layer of help and security. Their presence is a protection.”
Submitting the names of local staff is “not negotiable,” she said. “We offered alternatives, they refused,” hse said, of the Israeli regulators.
The ministry said Thursday: “The primary failure identified was the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees, a critical requirement designed to prevent the infiltration of terrorist operatives into humanitarian structures.”
In March, Israel gave NGOs 10 months to comply with the new rules, which demand the “full disclosure of personnel, funding sources, and operational structures.”
The deadline expired on Wednesday.
The 37 NGOs “were formally notified that their licenses would be revoked as of January 1, 2026, and that they must complete the cessation of their activities by March 1, 2026,” the ministry said Thursday.
A ministry spokesperson told AFP that following the revocation of their licenses, aid groups could no longer bring assistance into Gaza from Thursday.
However, they could have their licenses reinstated if they submitted the required documents before March 1.
Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said “the message is clear: humanitarian assistance is welcome — the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not.”
‘Weaponization of bureaucracy’
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
“This weaponization of bureaucracy institutionalizes barriers to aid and forces vital organizations to suspend operations,” they said.
UN Palestinian refugee agency chief Philippe Lazzarini had said the move sets a “dangerous precedent.”
“Failing to push back against attempts to control the work of aid organizations will further undermine the basic humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, impartiality and humanity underpinning aid work across the world,” he said on X.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of 10 countries, including France and Britain, urged Israel to “guarantee access” to aid in the Gaza Strip, where they said the humanitarian situation remains “catastrophic.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
