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Factional Risks Hover as Libya's UN Peace Process Advances

FILE: Representatives of Libya’s rival administrations take part in a meeting in Morocco, on October 6. (AFP)
FILE: Representatives of Libya’s rival administrations take part in a meeting in Morocco, on October 6. (AFP)
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Factional Risks Hover as Libya's UN Peace Process Advances

FILE: Representatives of Libya’s rival administrations take part in a meeting in Morocco, on October 6. (AFP)
FILE: Representatives of Libya’s rival administrations take part in a meeting in Morocco, on October 6. (AFP)

Libyans working under a UN peace process on Tuesday agreed a mechanism to choose a new temporary government to oversee the run-up to elections late this year, in the hope that it can avoid being scuppered by factional rivalries.

It follows weeks of negotiation after a political dialogue in Tunis in November among 75 Libyans, selected by the UN Libya mission, charted a roadmap towards elections but failed to agree on how to form an interim government.

Libya has known little peace since Moammar al-Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, in an uprising backed by NATO, and has been split since 2014 between warring factions that have set up rival administrations in the west and east.

The mechanism to choose a transitional government was proposed on Saturday by a smaller committee, drawn from the political dialogue members, that met in Geneva last week. It was voted on by the full body on Monday and Tuesday.

It means the group will soon turn to the nomination and choice of a unified government to prepare for the Dec. 24 presidential and parliamentary elections - a process that is no less fraught with potential for bitter disputes.

Both the main coalitions in western and eastern Libya are honeycombed with rivalries, and any move that cuts out powerful figures could unleash a new bout of the fighting that has already sucked in other powers.

The country is split between the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which is backed by Turkey, and the east-based Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar.

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Israel’s Military Operation in Gaza Expanding to Seize ‘Large Areas,’ Defense Minister Says

Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP)
Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP)
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Israel’s Military Operation in Gaza Expanding to Seize ‘Large Areas,’ Defense Minister Says

Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP)
Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP)

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said Wednesday. 

Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory was “expanding to crush and clean the area” of gunmen and “seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a written statement. 

The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its security fence and has greatly expanded since the war began in 2023. Israel says the buffer zone is needed for its security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab that further shrinks the narrow coastal territory, home to around 2 million people. 

Katz didn't specify which areas of Gaza would be seized in the expanded operation, which he said includes the “extensive evacuation” of the population from fighting areas. His statement came after Israel ordered the full evacuation of the southern city of Rafah and nearby areas. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel aims to maintain an open-ended but unspecified security control of the Gaza Strip once it achieves its aim of crushing Hamas. 

The minister called on Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return all hostages.” The group still holds 59 captives, of whom 24 are believed to still be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. 

“This is the only way to end the war,” Katz said. 

The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said that it was “horrified to wake up this morning to the Defense Minister's announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza.” 

The group said the Israeli government “has an obligation to free all 59 hostages from Hamas captivity — to pursue every possible channel to advance a deal for their release,” and stressed that every passing day puts their loved ones' lives at greater risk. 

“Our highest priority must be an immediate deal to bring ALL hostages back home — the living for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial — and end this war,” the group said. 

Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes overnight killing 17 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, hospital officials said. 

Officials at the Nasser Hospital said the bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike that were brought to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Officials at the Gaza European Hospital said they received five bodies of people killed in two separate airstrikes. 

The war began when Hamas-led gunmen attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. 

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since a ceasefire ended about two weeks ago, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.