Tunisia Closes Crossing with Libya Amid Clashes on Libyan Side, State Radio Says 

Vehicles are seen at the Ras Jdir border crossing with Libya. (Libya’s Government of National Unity's Interior Ministry file photo)
Vehicles are seen at the Ras Jdir border crossing with Libya. (Libya’s Government of National Unity's Interior Ministry file photo)
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Tunisia Closes Crossing with Libya Amid Clashes on Libyan Side, State Radio Says 

Vehicles are seen at the Ras Jdir border crossing with Libya. (Libya’s Government of National Unity's Interior Ministry file photo)
Vehicles are seen at the Ras Jdir border crossing with Libya. (Libya’s Government of National Unity's Interior Ministry file photo)

Tunisia temporarily closed the Ras Jdir border crossing with Libya for security reasons amid armed clashes on the Libyan side, Tunisian state media said late on Monday.

Video footage has been circulated on social media showing a burning vehicle at Ras Jdir, accompanied by the sound of shooting and people running.

The interior ministry of the government of national unity in Tripoli was not immediately available for comment.

The ministry said on Sunday that it had deployed law enforcement to take control of the crossing to “combat smuggling and control security violations in order to maintain security and manage the movement of passengers between Libya and Tunisia”.

Tunisian Tataouine Radio said that Tunisia closed the crossing to preserve the safety of citizens going to Libya. Stranded people from the Libyan side were allowed to enter before the crossing closed.

Libya has had little peace since a 2011 uprising, and it split in 2014 between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing each area.



Blinken Aims to 'Cross Finish Line' on Gaza Ceasefire, Hostages Deal

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried to Al Aqsa Hospital following an Israeli air strike on Al Bureije refugee camp in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, 05 January 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
A wounded Palestinian boy is carried to Al Aqsa Hospital following an Israeli air strike on Al Bureije refugee camp in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, 05 January 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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Blinken Aims to 'Cross Finish Line' on Gaza Ceasefire, Hostages Deal

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried to Al Aqsa Hospital following an Israeli air strike on Al Bureije refugee camp in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, 05 January 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
A wounded Palestinian boy is carried to Al Aqsa Hospital following an Israeli air strike on Al Bureije refugee camp in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, 05 January 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Washington wanted to see a ceasefire deal in Gaza concluded and the hostages brought out in the next two weeks.
A renewed push is under way to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and return Israeli hostages before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
"We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining," Blinken told a press conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.