Libyan National Army Captures El Feel Oil Field

A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. (Reuters)
A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. (Reuters)
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Libyan National Army Captures El Feel Oil Field

A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. (Reuters)
A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. (Reuters)

The Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar announced on Wednesday that it had retaken the Libya's 70,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) El Feel Oil Field from armed groups loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA).

The National Oil Corporation said earlier on Wednesday that air strikes had halted production at El Feel as LNA retaliated after forces aligned to the GNA in Tripoli took control of the field.

The LNA drove out the rival group and was securing the field, its spokesman, Ahmed Mismari, said on his Facebook page.

The fighting reignited a conflict for control of large oilfields in southwestern Libya between competing military alliances that are also battling on the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli.

"There have been air strikes at the gates of the El Feel oilfield and inside a housing compound at the field used by NOC personnel," NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a statement.

"Production will remain shuttered until military activity ceases and all military personnel withdraw from NOC's area of operations."

The LNA said its jets had launched air strikes "at the perimeter of El Feel oilfield targeting the positions of armed groups that attacked the field".

The country's oil production has been repeatedly disrupted in recent years by conflict and blockades but is currently relatively stable at about 1.25 million bpd.

El Feel is operated by Mellitah Oil and Gas, a joint venture between the NOC and Italy's Eni. An engineer at the field said production was 70,000 bpd before the stoppage.

Haftar's forces have controlled El Feel and the nearby El Sharara oilfield, Libya's largest, since February, when they swept through the south before launching an offensive on Tripoli in April.

The campaign for Tripoli quickly stalled, though fighting between rival forces continues on the outskirts of the capital.



Hamas Hands Over Bodies of Four Gaza Hostages

Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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Hamas Hands Over Bodies of Four Gaza Hostages

Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Hamas handed over the bodies on Thursday of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken in the October 7, 2023 attack.
The Palestinian group released the bodies of the two boys and their mother Shiri Bibas, along with that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, under the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month with the backing of the United States and the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.

Red Cross vehicles drove away from the handover site in the Gaza Strip with four black coffins that had been placed on a stage. Each of the caskets had a small picture of the hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief video statement that Thursday would be "a very difficult day for the state of Israel. An upsetting day, a day of grief."

Kfir Bibas was nine months old when the Bibas family, including their father Yarden, was abducted at Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of a string of communities near Gaza that were overrun by Hamas-led attackers from Gaza on October 7.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike but their deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities and even at the last minute, some refused to accept they were dead.

At the handover site, a large poster was hung up, depicting Netanyahu as a vampire standing over images of the four hostages. "The War Criminal Netanyahu & His Nazi Army Killed Them with Missiles from Zionist Warplanes," the poster read.
Following the handover, the remains will be moved into coffins draped with the Israeli flag and an army rabbi will provide over a short ceremony. They will then be taken into Israel to the national forensic institute to be identified, a process that could take a few hours or even a few days.
Only after identification will there be a formal announcement of their deaths and a funeral.
The handover marks the first return of dead bodies during the current agreement and Israel is not expected to confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.
Despite accusations on both sides of ceasefire breaches, the fragile agreement that took effect on January 19 has held up since the first in a series of exchanges of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.