Mounting Voices within GNA Reject Implementation of Libya Ceasefire

Buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants are seen in Sirte, Libya Aug.18, 2020. (Reuters)
Buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants are seen in Sirte, Libya Aug.18, 2020. (Reuters)
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Mounting Voices within GNA Reject Implementation of Libya Ceasefire

Buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants are seen in Sirte, Libya Aug.18, 2020. (Reuters)
Buildings destroyed during past fighting with ISIS militants are seen in Sirte, Libya Aug.18, 2020. (Reuters)

Voices of rejection have been mounting among the militias allied with the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) over the implementation of the 5+5 military committee’s ceasefire agreement.

The UN-sponsored agreement was reached between the Libyan National Army (LNA) and GNA in October.

Salah Badi, commander of the al-Somoud militias in Misrata, announced his rejection to open the coastal road between western city and the central city of Sirte in line with the agreement.

A spokesman for Badi, who is wanted locally and internationally on war crimes charges, said the militia will not open the road before the LNA pulls out from Sirte and al-Jufra.

In the southern city of Sabha, clashes erupted between the LNA and GNA.

No official statement was issued by either side, but local sources and the media said the fighting broke out suddenly when an LNA unit attempted to seize a headquarters for GNA forces.

Residents of the city, which lies some 800 kilometers southwest of the capital Tripoli, said they heard explosions and confirmed the deployment of forces from both sides in its suburbs.

In the capital Tripoli, Syrian mercenaries, who were flown in by Turkey to fight for the GNA, were seen departing the country.

The fighters were seen at Mitiga airport where they boarded a plane that flew them to the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Local media quoted a source as saying that this was not first such departing flight, revealing that another batch of some 150 to 180 mercenaries had left on Saturday also via the airport.

The LNA confirmed the flights. The GNA has yet to comment on them.

The LNA said it was too soon to determine whether the mercenaries will be flown back to Libya.

Last week, the fighters had openly protested over unpaid wages, in an embarrassment to the GNA.



Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Weather is compounding the challenges facing displaced people in Gaza, where heavy rains and dropping temperatures are making tents and other temporary shelters uninhabitable.

Government officials in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave said on Monday that nearly 10,000 tents had been swept away by flooding over the past two days, adding to their earlier warnings about the risks facing those sheltering in low-lying floodplains, including areas designated as humanitarian zones.

Um Mohammad Marouf, a mother who fled bombardments in northern Gaza and now is sheltering with her family in a Gaza City tent said the downpour had covered her children and left everyone wet and vulnerable.

“We have nothing to protect ourselves,” she said outside the United Nations-provided tent where she lives with 10 family members.

Marouf and others living in rows of cloth and nylon tents hung their drenched clothing on drying lines and re-erected their tarpaulin walls on Monday.

Officials from the Hamas-run government said that 81% of the 135,000 tents appeared unfit for shelter, based on recent assessments, and blamed Israel for preventing the entry of additional needed tents. They said many had been swept away by seawater or were inadequate to house displaced people as winter sets in.

The UNestimates that around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services. Israeli evacuation warnings now cover around 90% of the territory.

“The first rains of the winter season mean even more suffering. Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding. The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike,” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote in a statement on X on Monday.