Libya Reports New Cases of COVID-19 Variant

Part of an awareness session on the covid-19 pandemic sponsored by the International Organization for Migration in Libya. (IOM)
Part of an awareness session on the covid-19 pandemic sponsored by the International Organization for Migration in Libya. (IOM)
TT
20

Libya Reports New Cases of COVID-19 Variant

Part of an awareness session on the covid-19 pandemic sponsored by the International Organization for Migration in Libya. (IOM)
Part of an awareness session on the covid-19 pandemic sponsored by the International Organization for Migration in Libya. (IOM)

Health authorities in Libya have announced detecting cases of the novel coronavirus that was first discovered in the UK, raising fears over the increase in the number of infections in the country.

In a statement on Thursday, the Libyan National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) said a group of experts on Viruses and Molecular Biology at the Community Health Reference Laboratory conducted a series of tests to detect the new coronavirus variant discovered in London in early January.

The testing conducted on 88 randomized covid-positive samples showed that 23 cases were of the new variant, representing 26 percent of all the total number of samples.

The NCDC pointed out that detecting the new variant in Libya sparks concern as this mutation is distinguished by a rapid transmission rate that could cause a concerning spike in the number of cases.

“People’s continued disregard and non-abidance by the preventative measures will further spread the virus and possibly increase the number of deaths,” it stressed.

Health authorities have been complaining since the pandemic’s outbreak about people’s negligence in applying precautionary measures, especially in popular markets, shops and during social events.

In addition, many do not believe in the coronavirus existence, which, according to Libyan doctors, has led to the spread of the virus.

The center stressed the need to continue tracking the new variant as well as obtaining the needed funding for this process.

The NCDC recorded 2,156 deaths and 571 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total number of infections to 131,833, of which 118,791 have recovered.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TT
20

Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".