Tunisian President Hails Launching of First Homemade Satellite

President Kais Saied accompanied by TelNet CEO Mohamed Frikha after launching the first homemade Tunisian satellite. AFP
President Kais Saied accompanied by TelNet CEO Mohamed Frikha after launching the first homemade Tunisian satellite. AFP
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Tunisian President Hails Launching of First Homemade Satellite

President Kais Saied accompanied by TelNet CEO Mohamed Frikha after launching the first homemade Tunisian satellite. AFP
President Kais Saied accompanied by TelNet CEO Mohamed Frikha after launching the first homemade Tunisian satellite. AFP

Tunisian President Kais Saied has hailed the launching of the first homemade satellite into space.

Challenge-1, built by a team from telecommunications giant TelNet, blasted off along with 37 other satellites aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday.

Saied joined engineers and journalists to watch the launch of the satellite live on screen at TelNet headquarters in Tunis.

“Our real wealth is the youth who can face obstacles,” Saied said, stressing that Tunisia lacks not resources but “national will” amid its dire social and political crises. “We are proud of our youth.”

This satellite will allow communication and data exchange in many areas including control, transport, agriculture and logistics by receiving data and sending it to suppliers around the world, TelNet explained.

It is designed and developed by exclusively Tunisian skills, TelNet CEO Mohamed Frikha told AFP.

This is a gift to the Tunisian people on the 65th anniversary of the country’s independence, he added.

Tunisia has become the first country in the Maghreb and the sixth in Africa to manufacture a satellite after Egypt, South Africa and Ghana, according to Space in Africa website.

The Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) flew six different satellites in communication, earth observation and scientific missions and is currently developing its “AlSat 3.”

Morocco, meanwhile, launched two satellites into orbit in cooperation with the Franco-Italian consortium Thales Alenia Space and Airbus.

Tunisia is suffering from an economic crisis and skyrocketing unemployment even before the coronavirus pandemic, and recent months have seen growing anti-government protests.

Several thousand engineers leave each year to seek work abroad.

“We are very emotional, after three years of intense work," said engineer Haifa Triki, 28, who followed the flight live from Tunis. “We made a lot of sacrifices, but it was worth it.”

“Job opportunities exist in Tunisia. The problem is to make young engineers want to stay,” she added.



At Least 27 Palestinians Killed Near Gaza Aid Site, Medics Say

Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed REFILE
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed REFILE
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At Least 27 Palestinians Killed Near Gaza Aid Site, Medics Say

Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed REFILE
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed REFILE

At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local health authorities said, in the third day of chaos and bloodshed to affect the aid operation. 

The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of individuals who had left designated access routes near the distribution center in Rafah. 

It added it was still investigating what had happened. The deaths came hours after Israel said three of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, as its forces pushed ahead with a months-long offensive against Hamas that has laid waste to much of the enclave. 

Reuters could not independently verify the reports in northern and southern Gaza. 

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters that its field hospital in Rafah received 184 casualties, adding that 19 of those were declared dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after. 

More than 35 patients required immediate intervention, the spokesperson added. 

The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its first distribution sites last week in an effort to alleviate widespread hunger amongst Gaza's war-battered population, most of whom have had to abandon their homes to flee fighting. 

The Foundation's aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and established charities which say it does not follow humanitarian principles. 

The private group, which is endorsed by Israel, said it distributed 21 truckloads of food early on Tuesday and that the aid operation was "conducted safely and without incident within the site".  

However, there have been reports of repeated killings near Rafah as crowds gather to get desperately needed supplies.  

On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials reported that at least 31 people were killed and dozens more injured. On Monday, three more Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire. 

The Israeli military has denied targeting civilians gathering for aid and called reports of deaths during Sunday’s distribution "fabrications" by Hamas.  

On Tuesday, it said its forces had identified "a number of suspects" moving towards them while deviating from the access routes.  

"The forces fired evasive shots, and after they did not move away, additional shots were fired near the individual suspects who were advancing towards the forces," it said. 

MASS EVACUATIONS ORDERED 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday he was "appalled" by reports of Palestinians killed and wounded while seeking aid and called for an independent investigation. 

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents of several districts in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip late on Monday, warning that the army would act forcefully against fighters operating in those areas. 

The military told residents to head west towards the Mawasi humanitarian area. Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave, and that most of its 2.3 million population has become internally displaced. 

The territory's health ministry said on Tuesday that the new evacuation orders could halt work at the Nasser Hospital, the largest, still-functioning medical facility in the south, endangering the lives of those being treated there. 

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 assault in which Hamas-led gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies. 

In the subsequent fighting, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, local health authorities say.