Libyan National Army: Battle for Derna Nearing End

Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)
Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)
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Libyan National Army: Battle for Derna Nearing End

Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)
Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)

The Libyan National Army, commanded by Khalifa Haftar, announced on Monday that its campaign against the last remaining terrorist pockets in the eastern city of Derna is nearing its final stages.

"The LNA controls most of the city, but there are still pockets of resistance," LNA spokesman General Ahmed al-Mismari told AFP.

Mesmari said LNA forces were focusing on "sweep operations and tracking down terrorist elements".

The spokesman called on displaced families to return to their homes in "liberated areas" of the city.

The LNA launched a ground offensive to take Derna last month after encircling the city - the last in eastern Libya to elude their control - for around two years.

The LNA is fighting a coalition known as the Derna Protection Force (DPF), which includes local combatants and extremist forces with links to groups in western Libya. The DPF includes fighters with connections to al-Qaeda, as well as foreign militants.

On Saturday and Sunday, the LNA said it had advanced in the district of Sheiha after hitting it with multiple air strikes, to the edge of Al Maghar in central Derna, a Mediterranean port.

“What remains outside the control of our forces is considered a small combat zone, less than just 10 km squared,” said Mismari. “The operations are in their final stages and the fighting is very heavy.”

On June 4, Haftar said "victory was near" for his forces in Derna.

He said the LNA would deploy across the city to take control of all areas and infrastructure, warning his troops against taking "revenge" -- in particular against terrorists who surrender and give up their arms.

The United Nations has expressed concern about the plight of Derna’s 125,000 residents, whose access to food, water, communications and medical treatment has been severely restricted.

The LNA has said it is working to restore services and deliver food to parts of Derna where it has advanced.

The Libyan Red Crescent said it had helped some 1,800 families that had been granted safe passage from areas being fought over. It said Sunday it had delivered humanitarian aid to 6,000 people in western Derna's Bab Tobruk district, in addition to thousands of others who have fled fighting in the embattled city to nearby areas.

Derna is located about 265 km (165 miles) to the west of the border with Egypt.



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.