Libya’s Dbeibah Dismisses Foreign Minister Over Israel Meeting 

Tires burn on the road as people protest against the meeting which was held last week in Italy between foreign affairs ministers of Libya and Israel, in Tripoli, Libya, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)
Tires burn on the road as people protest against the meeting which was held last week in Italy between foreign affairs ministers of Libya and Israel, in Tripoli, Libya, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)
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Libya’s Dbeibah Dismisses Foreign Minister Over Israel Meeting 

Tires burn on the road as people protest against the meeting which was held last week in Italy between foreign affairs ministers of Libya and Israel, in Tripoli, Libya, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)
Tires burn on the road as people protest against the meeting which was held last week in Italy between foreign affairs ministers of Libya and Israel, in Tripoli, Libya, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)

Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah has dismissed Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush after her meeting with her Israeli counterpart triggered protests, a Libyan government source said on Monday.

Dbeibah had earlier referred Mangoush for investigation over the meeting, which was the first ever between top diplomats of Libya and Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Mangoush met in Rome last week.

Cohen said they discussed the importance of preserving the heritage of Libya’s former Jewish community, including renovating synagogues and cemeteries. The talks also touched on possible Israeli assistance for humanitarian issues, agriculture and water management, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

The Libyan foreign ministry, meanwhile, sought to downplay the importance of the meeting as “unprepared and an unofficial meeting” during a meeting with Italy’s foreign minister. It said in a statement that Mangoush’s encounter with Cohen didn’t include “any talks, agreements or consultations.”

Dbeibah had earlier suspended Mangoush, suggesting he was not aware of the meeting. However, two senior Libyan government officials told The Associated Press he did know about the talks between his foreign minister and the Israeli chief diplomat.

One of the officials said Dbeibah gave the green light for the meeting last month when he was on a visit to Rome. His office arranged the encounter in coordination with Mangoush, he said.

The second official said the meeting lasted for about two hours and Mangoush briefed the prime minister directly after her return to Tripoli. The official said the meeting crowned US-brokered efforts to have Libya join a series of Arab countries establishing diplomatic ties with Israel.

The official said normalization of relations between Libya and Israel was first discussed in a meeting between Dbeibah, and CIA Director William Burns, who visited the Libyan capital in January.

Dbeibah gave initial approval for joining the US-brokered Abraham Accords, but he was concerned about public backlash in a country known for its past support for the Palestinian cause, the official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.

Sunday’s announcement of the meeting prompted scattered protests in Tripoli, where the GNU is based, and other towns in western Libya. Protesters stormed the foreign ministry headquarters to condemn the meeting, while others attacked and burned a residence for the prime minister in Tripoli, according to local reports.

In the town of Zawiya protesters burned the Israeli flag, while others held the Palestinian flag. There were also protests in the city of Misrata, a stronghold for Dbeibah, according to footage circulated on social media and verified by The Associated Press.

Khalid al-Mishri, who was the chair of the State Council, a Tripoli-based legislative body, condemned the meeting and called for the dismissal of Dbeibah’s government.

“This government has crossed all prohibited lines and must be brought down,” he wrote on the X platform, previously known as Twitter.

The east-based House of Representatives also slammed the meeting as a “legal and moral crime.” It called for an emergency session Monday in the eastern city of Benghazi. Libya criminalizes normalization of ties with Israel, according to a 1957 law.

In Israel, Yair Lapid, a former foreign minister and prime minister, criticized Cohen for going public with the sensitive meeting.

“Countries of the world this morning are looking at the irresponsible leak of the meeting of the Israeli and Libyan foreign minister and asking themselves: is it possible to manage foreign relations with this country? Is it possible to trust this country?” Lapid said in a statement.



Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
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Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP

The director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital who was detained by Israeli forces in December is being held in "inhumane" conditions by Israel and subjected to "physical and psychological intimidation", his lawyer told AFP.

Hussam Abu Safiya, a 52-year-old paediatrician, rose to prominence last year by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.

On December 27, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility which they labelled a Hamas "terrorist centre", and arrested dozens of medical staff including Abu Safiya.

Abu Safiya's lawyer, Gheed Qassem, was able to visit the doctor on March 19 in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.

"He is suffering greatly, he is exhausted from the torture, the pressure and the humiliation he has endured to force him to confess to acts he did not commit," said Qassem who met an AFP correspondent in Nazareth.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the conditions in which Abu Safiya is being held.

- 'Beatings and torture' -

After initially spending two weeks in the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel's Negev desert, Abu Safiya was transferred to Ofer, where Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

In Sde Teiman, Abu Safiya was subjected to interrogations "involving beatings, mistreatment and torture", Qassem said, before he was transferred to a cramped cell in Ofer for 25 days, where he was also subjected to questioning.

The Israeli authorities have designated the medic an "illegal combatant" for an "unlimited period of time", Qassem said, and his case has been designated confidential by the military, meaning Abu Safiya's defence cannot access the files.

She denounced what she said were restrictions imposed on legal visits, which have prevented lawyers from informing detainees about "the war, the date, the time or their geographic location".

Her meeting with Abu Safiya, which took place under tight surveillance, lasted for only 17 minutes, she said.

Adopted in 2002, Israel's law concerning "illegal combatants" permits the detention of suspected members of "hostile forces" outside of normal legal frameworks.

In January, rights group Amnesty International demanded Abu Safiya's release, citing witness testimonies describing "the horrifying reality" in Israeli prisons, where Palestinian detainees are subjected to "systematic acts of torture and other mistreatment".

A social media campaign using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya has brought together healthcare organizations, celebrities and UN leaders.

That includes the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who demanded Abu Safiya's release in a post on X.

- 'Human duty' -

Qassem warned that her client's health was "very worrying".

"He is suffering from arterial tension, cardiac arrhythmia and vision problems," she said, adding "he has lost 20 kilos in two months and fractured four ribs during interrogations, without receiving proper medical care".

The doctor remains calm, she said, but "wonders what crime he has committed" to be subjected to "such inhumane conditions".

According to the lawyer, Abu Safiya's jailers are demanding that he confess to having operated on members of Hamas or Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but he has refused to do so and denies the accusations.

The doctor insists that he is just a paediatrician, "and everything he did was out of a moral, professional and human duty towards the patients and the wounded", Qassem said.

Since October 7, 2023, around 5,000 Gazans have been arrested by Israel, and some were subsequently released in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.

In general, they are accused of "belonging to a terrorist organizfation" or of posing "a threat to Israel's security," the lawyer said.

Qassem said that a number of detainees are being held without charge or trial and that their lawyers often did not know where their clients were during the first months of the war.