Lebanese Mountain Village Mourns Dead in Israeli Airstrike

 Destroyed buildings are seen after being hit by Israeli airstrikes in the village of Qmatiyeh, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)
Destroyed buildings are seen after being hit by Israeli airstrikes in the village of Qmatiyeh, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)
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Lebanese Mountain Village Mourns Dead in Israeli Airstrike

 Destroyed buildings are seen after being hit by Israeli airstrikes in the village of Qmatiyeh, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)
Destroyed buildings are seen after being hit by Israeli airstrikes in the village of Qmatiyeh, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)

A village in the mountains southeast of Beirut was in shock after an Israeli airstrike demolished a residential building and partly destroyed another, killing seven people, including three children.

Hadi Zahwe, a resident of the area, told reporters that the strike on Sunday was "terrifying."

"There were children killed, there were children’s body parts," he said. "This enemy is targeting civilian women and children."

Israel has carried out a widening aerial bombardment of many parts of southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs over the past two weeks, targeting what it said were Hezbollah fighters and weapons.

It was not clear what the intended target was in Sunday’s strike, which was the first one to hit the area.

Mahmoud Nasr Eldin, the town’s deputy mayor, said the village contains "no security or military centers."

"There’s nothing in Qmatiyeh that they’re looking for — it’s a safe area," he said. "We welcomed around 15,000 internally displaced people. They are our people, they ran away from their villages and came to get protection here."



Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say

Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
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Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say

Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo

Libya's eastern-based parliament has approved a national reconciliation and transitional justice law, three lawmakers said, a measure aimed at reunifying the oil-producing country after over a decade of factional conflict.

The House of Representatives (HoR) spokesperson, Abdullah Belaihaq, said on the X platform that the legislation was passed on Tuesday by a majority of the session's attendees in Libya's largest second city Benghazi.

However, implementing the law could be challenging as Libya has been divided since a 2014 civil war that spawned two rival administrations vying for power in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

"I hope that it (the law) will be in effect all over the country and will not face any difficulty," House member Abdulmenam Alorafi told Reuters by phone on Wednesday.

The United Nations mission to Libya has repeatedly called for an inclusive, rights-based transitional justice and reconciliation process in the North African country.

A political process to end years of institutional division and outright warfare has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of the main candidates.

In Tripoli, there is the Government of National Unity (GNU) under Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah that was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021, but the parliament no longer recognizes its legitimacy. Dbeibah has vowed not to cede power to a new government without national elections.

There are two competing legislative bodies - the HoR that was elected in 2014 as the national parliament with a four-year mandate to oversee a political transition, and the High Council of State in Tripoli formed as part of a 2015 political agreement and drawn from a parliament first elected in 2012.

The Tripoli-based Presidential Council, which came to power with GNU, has been working on a reconciliation project and holding "a comprehensive conference" with the support of the UN and African Union. But it has been unable to bring all rival groups together because of their continuing differences.