Tunisia’s Ennahda Denies Claims of Ghannouchi’s Death in Prison

Ennahda movement leader Rached al-Ghannouchi. (AFP)
Ennahda movement leader Rached al-Ghannouchi. (AFP)
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Tunisia’s Ennahda Denies Claims of Ghannouchi’s Death in Prison

Ennahda movement leader Rached al-Ghannouchi. (AFP)
Ennahda movement leader Rached al-Ghannouchi. (AFP)

Tunisia’s Ennahda movement denied on Sunday reports that its leader, Rached al-Ghannouchi, had died in prison.

Secretary-General of the party Lajmi Lourimi released a statement bearing Ghannouchi’s signature that says: “The leader of the movement is well” and that he was a “symbol of perseverance.”

Ghannouchi, 82, has been held in Mornaguia prison for nine months. He was sentenced to a year in jail in May on charges of incitement and plotting against state security.

Lourimi strongly condemned attacks against Ghannouchi, who also served as parliament speaker.

Ennahda dismisses this “ugly rumor and condemns its promotion and whoever started it,” he added.

Moreover, he called against exploiting the image of the Ennahda leader and “his struggle” for “desperate political gains.”

Such attempts “would be aimed at covering political failure and distracting from national causes,” he remarked.

Furthermore, Ennahda warned that the promotion of such rumors may be a precursor to “scenarios that harm the revolution, people and nation or the movement leader.”

It called on the authorities to “seriously address such fake news.”



Israel Says it Killed a Hezbollah Member in Drone Strike in South Lebanon

A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
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Israel Says it Killed a Hezbollah Member in Drone Strike in South Lebanon

A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)

An Israeli drone strike hit a car in south Lebanon on Saturday, killing one person who the Israeli military said was a member of Hezbollah.

State-run National News Agency did not give further details about the strike in the village of Bourj el-Mlouk.

The airstrike was the latest in a wave of such attacks since a US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late November ending the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli military said the Hezbollah member who was killed was active in the border village of Kfar Kila.

The strike came a day after Lebanon’s military court sentenced two people to prison terms for giving digital information to Israel.

Four judicial officials told The Associated Press Saturday that one of those sentenced received a 15-year prison term while the other was sentenced to 10 years in jail. A third was set free for lack of evidence against him, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share information with the media.

The officials said the two scanned the cellular telephones network in wide areas of Beirut and its southern suburbs that is home to Hezbollah’s headquarters using sophisticated equipment.

The officials said the two, who were detained last year, also supplied Israel with about 1,500 photographs from Beirut’s southern suburbs.