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Tension Casts Shadow over Libya's Sirte

Migrants are seen at the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency shelter center in Tajoura near Tripoli, Libya April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo
Migrants are seen at the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency shelter center in Tajoura near Tripoli, Libya April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo
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Tension Casts Shadow over Libya's Sirte

Migrants are seen at the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency shelter center in Tajoura near Tripoli, Libya April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo
Migrants are seen at the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency shelter center in Tajoura near Tripoli, Libya April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo

A resumption of military clashes in the Libyan city of Sirte this week came as deputies loyal to the Government of National Accord launched a new political initiative that rejects any role for Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar in the political process.

Asaad Shartaa, spokesman for a council formed by defected members of the Libyan parliament, said during a press conference Tuesday that the initiative seeks to achieve a comprehensive national reconciliation on condition that those who have committed crimes against Libyans would not go unpunished.

On the battlefield, the GNA forces revealed no movements at Wadi Bai, which is deemed a strategic region on the Sirte and Jufra line. However, a military source reported to pro-LNA Libyan Arab News Agency (LANA) that the army conducted aerial sorties against “hostile targets” in Wadi Bai and Abu Nujaym, southeast of Misrata.

Remarkably, Minister of Interior of the Libyan Interim Government Ibrahim Bushnaf ordered the General Administration of Central Support to secure the city.

This came after Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) Issa al-Oraibi approved a proposal made by Speaker of the east-based Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh to place Sirte under the protection of the Ministry of Interior.

Further, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Sayala held discussions with Italian Ambassador to Libya Giuseppe Buccino on the possibility of activating the Libyan-Italian treaties and the issue of migrants.

The meeting mainly dealt with Libyan-Italian treaties, particularly with regard to the highway linking Ras Ajdir and Musaid.

In a related development, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced that 141 migrants were intercepted at sea and taken back to Libya.

Migrants intercepted at sea by the Libyan coast guard in 2020 numbered 6,989, IOM said, while 123 died and 180 went missing.

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Arab World

Israeli War Planes Pound Beirut Suburb, Hezbollah Strikes Back

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
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Israeli War Planes Pound Beirut Suburb, Hezbollah Strikes Back

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)

The Israeli military pounded Beirut's southern suburbs with airstrikes on Tuesday, mounting one of its heaviest daytime attacks yet on the Hezbollah-controlled area after the defense minister ruled out a ceasefire until Israeli goals were met.

Smoke billowed over Beirut as around a dozen strikes hit the southern suburbs from mid-morning. After posting warnings to civilians on social media, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area of southern Beirut, including command centers and weapons production sites.

It said it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians and repeated its standing accusation that Hezbollah deliberately embeds itself into civilian areas to use residents as human shields, a charge Hezbollah rejects.

In northern Israel, two people were killed in the city of Nahariya when a residential building was hit by a missile, Israeli police said.

Israelis were forced to take shelter across the north as attack drones were launched from Lebanon, the military said. One hit the yard of a kindergarten in a Haifa suburb, where the children had been rushed into a shelter, rescue workers said. None were hurt.

An Israeli strike back across the border killed five people in the Lebanese village of Baalchmay southeast of Beirut, and five more were killed in a strike on the town of Tefahta in the south, Lebanon's health ministry said. Another person was killed in a strike in Hermel in the northeast, it said.

Beirut residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing it in September. Footage of one strike shared on social media showed two missiles slamming into a building of around 10 storeys, demolishing it and sending up clouds of debris.

Ignited by the Gaza war, the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah had been rumbling on for a year before Israel went on the offensive in September, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.

Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows, killing many of its leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, flattening large areas of the southern suburbs, destroying border villages in the south, and striking more widely across Lebanon.

Since hostilities erupted a year ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,287 people in Lebanon, the majority in the last seven weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon over the last year.

WAR GOALS

Israel's new defense minister Israel Katz said on Monday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals.

"Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel's right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own, and meet the goals of the war in Lebanon - disarming Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes," he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had said earlier on Monday there had been "a certain progress" in ceasefire talks but the main challenge facing any ceasefire deal would be enforcement.

The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on the full implementation of a UN resolution that ended a war between the group and Israel in 2006.

The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani to be free of all weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanon and Israel have accused each other of violating the resolution.

Israel's offensive has driven more than 1 million people from their homes in Lebanon, causing a humanitarian crisis.

Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the area over the last year.