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Sarraj Heads to Rome Again as Turkey ‘Summons’ his Senior Military Officials

GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, on June 4, 2020. (AFP)
GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, on June 4, 2020. (AFP)
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Sarraj Heads to Rome Again as Turkey ‘Summons’ his Senior Military Officials

GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, on June 4, 2020. (AFP)
GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, on June 4, 2020. (AFP)

Libya has witnessed a flurry of developments in recent days, capped on Thursday with Government of National Accord (GNA) chief Fayez al-Sarraj’s surprise visit to Rome – his second in a month.

Italian media noted that the two-day visit was supposed to have been a formal trip.

Sarraj was then expected to then travel to Turkey, a main backer of the GNA.

A delegation of his senior military officials had arriving in Turkey before him for expanded security talks. It includes Defense Minister Salah al-Namroush, Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, High Council of State chief Khalid al-Mishri, head of the intelligence agency Emad al-Trabulsi, and 16 militia leaders.

Sources close to the GNA said the meeting is aimed at resolving disputes within the GNA and its forces before their withdrawal from frontlines with the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the cities of Sirte al-Jufra.

Unofficial sources said the meeting was aimed at preparing an “imminent military operation.”

Libyan media said that Turkey had “summoned” the delegation for an emergency meeting three weeks before a deadline for foreign forces and mercenaries to pull out from the chaos-ravaged country.

The withdrawal was part of a UN-brokered ceasefire agreement reached between the LNA and GNA in Geneva in October.

The 5+5 military committee, which includes LNA and GNA representatives, is expected to hold a decisive meeting in Sirte next week, revealed informed sources without elaborating.

Meanwhile, GNA commander of Sirte al-Jufra operations Ibrahim Bayt al-Mal expressed his “great disappointment” with the alleged heavy deployment of pro-LNA “Wagner gangs and Janjaweed fighters” near the frontlines.

In a statement on Wednesday, he doubted that the LNA and its affiliated fighters would commit to the ceasefire, citing the failure to pull out the mercenaries.

LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari denied the deployment of any such forces, hoping that all pending problems would be resolved “to end the large conspiracy that is leading the country towards division.”

He described the situation as calm on the Sirte front, saying the LNA has pushed back “Turkey-backed mercenaries.”

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At Least 40 Dead in Gaza, Medics Say, as Israeli Tanks Pull back from Camp

Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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At Least 40 Dead in Gaza, Medics Say, as Israeli Tanks Pull back from Camp

Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian men sit together inside a destroyed building after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians overnight and on Friday in the Gaza Strip, many of them in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the center of the enclave, medics said, after Israeli tanks pulled back from parts of the camp.

Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave's eight long-standing refugee camps.

Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip, medics said.

Others were killed in the northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, medics added. There was no fresh statement by the Israeli military on Friday, but on Thursday it said its forces were continuing to "strike terror targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip".

Israeli tanks had entered northern and western areas of Nuseirat on Thursday. They withdrew from northern areas on Friday but remained active in western parts of the camp. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said teams were unable to respond to distress calls from residents trapped in their homes.

Dozens of Palestinians returned on Friday to areas where the army had retreated to check on damage to their homes.

Medics and relatives covered up dead bodies, including of women, that lay on the road with blankets or white shrouds and carried them away on stretchers.

"Forgive me, my wife, forgive me, my Ibtissam, forgive me, my dear," one grief-stricken man moaned through tears beside her corpse, laid out on a stretcher on the ground.

Medics said an Israeli drone on Friday had killed Ahmed Al-Kahlout, head of the Intensive Care Unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the army has been operating since early October.

Contacted by Reuters, the Israeli military said it was unaware of a strike occurring in this location or timeframe.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip that barely function now due to shortages of medical, fuel, and food supplies. Most of its medical staff have been detained or expelled by the Israeli army, health officials say.

DISPLACEMENTS

The Israeli army said forces operating in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia since Oct. 5 aimed to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and waging attacks from those areas. Residents said the army was depopulating the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun as well as the Jabalia refugee camp.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities released around 30 Palestinians whom it had detained in the past few months during its Gaza offensive. Those released arrived at a hospital in southern Gaza for medical checkups, medics said.

Freed Palestinians, detained during the war, have complained of ill-treatment and torture in Israeli detention after they were released. Israel denies torture.

Months of efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza have yielded scant progress, and negotiations are now on hold

A ceasefire in the parallel conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, took effect before dawn on Wednesday, bringing a halt to hostilities that had escalated sharply in recent months and had overshadowed the Gaza conflict.

Announcing the Lebanon accord on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said he would now renew his push for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and he urged Israel and Hamas to seize the moment.

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,300 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the territory are in ruins.

The Hamas-led fighters who attacked southern Israeli communities 13 months ago, triggering the war, killed some 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages, Israel has said.