Tunisia Court Allows Mekki to Resume Election Bid

FILE PHOTO: Tunisia's Abdellatif el-Mekki speaks at a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Tunisia's Abdellatif el-Mekki speaks at a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi/File Photo
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Tunisia Court Allows Mekki to Resume Election Bid

FILE PHOTO: Tunisia's Abdellatif el-Mekki speaks at a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Tunisia's Abdellatif el-Mekki speaks at a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi/File Photo

A Tunisian court on Tuesday upheld an appeal by prominent opposition politician Abdellatif Mekki, allowing him to resume his bid for the presidency in an election expected on Oct. 6, judicial and political sources told Reuters.
The electoral commission had excluded Mekki from the race due to what it said was a lack of popular endorsements. A judicial official, Faycel Boguira, told Reuters that the court’s decision was final and could not be appealed.
Tunisia's administrative court will issue further rulings this week regarding other politicians who have filed appeals after the commission also rejected their candidacy papers. They include Mondher Zenaidi, Imed Daimi and Abir Moussi.
The court’s decision adds Mekki, head of the Action and Achievement Party, to a list of accepted candidates that also includes the incumbent, President Kais Saied, and politicians Ayachi Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui.
Mekki was a prominent official in the Islamist Ennahda party but left to found a rival party in 2022. However, he still enjoys widespread support among supporters of Ennahda, one of Tunisia's largest political parties.
"The court decision is fair and highlights the image of the administrative court, known for its integrity even in the darkest periods in Tunisia’s history," Ahmed Nafati, Mekki’s campaign manager, told Reuters.
Tunisian opposition parties, politicians and human rights groups have accused the authorities of using "arbitrary restrictions" and intimidation to help ensure the re-election of Saied.
They say the electoral commission is not neutral and is seeking to eliminate all serious competitors to pave the way for Saied's victory. The commission denies the accusations.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.