Libya Urges Egypt for Flight Resumption

Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohammad al-Hawaij, during his meeting with the Egyptian Chargé d'Affairs, Mohammad Tharwat Selim (Libyan Ministry of Economy)
Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohammad al-Hawaij, during his meeting with the Egyptian Chargé d'Affairs, Mohammad Tharwat Selim (Libyan Ministry of Economy)
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Libya Urges Egypt for Flight Resumption

Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohammad al-Hawaij, during his meeting with the Egyptian Chargé d'Affairs, Mohammad Tharwat Selim (Libyan Ministry of Economy)
Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohammad al-Hawaij, during his meeting with the Egyptian Chargé d'Affairs, Mohammad Tharwat Selim (Libyan Ministry of Economy)

Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade Mohammad al-Hawaij received the Egyptian Chargé d'Affairs Mohammad Tharwat Selim in Tripoli to discuss a number of bilateral issues including the arrangements for the meeting of the Higher Joint Libyan-Egyptian Committee.

The committee will convene during this year's third quarter to review, develop, and activate a number of economic, investment, and residence agreements.

During the meeting, Hawaij stressed the need to resume flights through Cairo International Airport, operate civilian flights between the two countries, and facilitate the entry procedures through all ports.

He also called on Egypt to participate in the Benghazi exhibition and organize a Libyan-Egyptian business forum on its sidelines, within the framework of encouraging investment and supporting the partnership between the private sector of the two countries.

Egypt should participate in the Tripoli International Fair, to be held in September 2021, said Hawaij, indicating that this will enhance trade exchange between the two countries and create foreign markets for Libyan products.

Meanwhile, the Libyan National Army (LNA) and Volcano of Rage operation swapped 35 detainees in the Shwerif area, within the framework of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC).

Member of presidential council Abdullah al-Lafi vowed to continue efforts to help release all detainees, pointing out that the operation took place in the presence of Major General Mustafa Yahya, member and the rapporteur of the JMC, and a number of notables and sheiks of Shwerif.

Yahya affirmed that this exchange deal is not the first, and won’t be the last, praising the efforts that led to its completion.

Furthermore, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) to convene on May 26 and 27 to discuss the constitutional basis finalized by the Legal Committee.

A member of the Legal Committee of the LPDF, Zahra Naqi, said the discussions will focus on the matters that were not addressed by the legal committee.

She pointed out that there are some outstanding issues, which must be determined before the meeting.

She explained that the sessions will be a live broadcast to ensure transparency, participation, and the effectiveness of the discussions.

Naqi also called for a digital consultative session to be held by the UNSMIL ahead of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum and the presidential elections.

She warned that failure to hold the elections on time threatens the political legitimacy, which could divide the state institutions.



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.