Eighth Year Marking Gaddafi’s Killing Sparks Libyan Controversy

Former Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi | Reuters
Former Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi | Reuters
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Eighth Year Marking Gaddafi’s Killing Sparks Libyan Controversy

Former Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi | Reuters
Former Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi | Reuters

Amidst a widening rift among Libyans supportive of the toppled Colonel Muammar Gaddafi regime and dissidents, Gaddafi loyalists are rallying masses to commemorate the eighth memorial on the former regime ruler’s passing next Saturday.

All the more Gaddafi loyalists in cities around the world have been demonstrating in an appeal to the international committee to push for the release of Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the late Gaddafi’s son, from aTripoli prison. It is worth noting that Tripoli is currently under the internationally-recognized Presidential Council headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

Both Colonel Gaddafi and his son, Moatassem-Billah Gaddafi, were captured and killed after NATO raided Sirte, the former president's hometown on October 20, 2011. Gaddafi’s death ended a 43-year-old one-man rule.

Pro-Gaddafi members of the Libyan community residing in Paris demonstrated on the anniversary of Gaddafi’s death to denounce NATO raids on Libya.

“We will work this year to voice our opinions before the international community, and we will demand an investigation into the killing of Col.Gaddafi and his son, Moatassem-Billah,” Mohammed Egith, a Libyan engineer working in France, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Some European countries aren’t really concerned about the fate of my country, but seek to secure personal gains and oil interests,”Egith added.

On the other hand, anti-Gaddafi revolutionaries believe that Libya’s strife today is “a reflection of the policies Gaddafi instated and the dismantling of state institutions.”

An ex-leader in the deposed regime, Dr. Mustafa al Zaidi, told Asharq Al-Awsat that turmoil bereaving Libya today eight years after toppling the Libyan regime makes the Gaddafi era a longed-for time of prosperity.

Living in exile in Egypt, Zaidi believes that the assassination of Gaddafi and his comrades was “carried out with the direct involvement of military forces and French and Qatari intelligence services based in Libyan territory.”

“We will certainly commemorate Gaddafi’s assassination in Egypt,” Zaidi said.

“It will be a ceremony in which the Holy Qur'an is read and a memorial service held,” he added.

Gaddafi supporters in Cairo have been holding meetings to arrange for the ceremony.

“We will continue to commemorate the assassination of the man we miss, and will not pay attention to his haters,” a local official from Libyan Bani Walid town told Asharq al-Awsat.



Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said.

The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of meters from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.

Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.