LNA Targets Terrorists in South Libya

Libyan National Army (LNA) members pose for a picture (File photo: Reuters)
Libyan National Army (LNA) members pose for a picture (File photo: Reuters)
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LNA Targets Terrorists in South Libya

Libyan National Army (LNA) members pose for a picture (File photo: Reuters)
Libyan National Army (LNA) members pose for a picture (File photo: Reuters)

Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, launched several airstrikes against ISIS terrorists in al-Haruj Mountains, in southwest Libya.

The National Army did not comment on the operation, but its Military Information Division issued a brief statement announcing that the air force launched a series of raids on a site of terrorist groups in the mountains.

Last Thursday, LNA spokesman Major General Ahmed al-Mismari announced a military operation against terrorists in the south of the country, after the commander of al-Waw Brigade, Ali al-Tabawi was killed by a landmine explosion during a reconnaissance patrol in the Haruj Mountains.

ISIS remnants reside only in the deserts in southern Libya, after they were active in separate parts of the country. Over four years ago, forces affiliated with the Tripoli government launched a major offensive to liberate Sirte, ISIS’ main stronghold.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called upon members of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) to convene in person in Switzerland on June 28, hours before the meeting of the 5 + 5 Joint Military Committee (JMC) in Sirte.

The JMC meeting on Sunday will include LNA representatives and forces affiliated with the unity government headed by Abdulhamid Dbeibeh.

The Military Committee will hold its fifth meeting at its headquarters in Sirte to resume discussion of the ceasefire mechanism, which was signed in Geneva in October 2020.

The meeting will also discuss the reports of the security and police sub-committees and the removal of mines, ahead of opening the Sirte-Misrata coastal road.

The committee will address removing foreign mercenaries from Libyan territory.

However, LNA commander Major General Khaled al-Mahjoub and JMC member Major General Khairy al-Tamimi denied any positive development in the issue of removing mercenaries and foreign forces from Libyan territories.

They said in televised statements that the interests of the countries involved in Libya, in addition to the mercenary issue, prevent a breakthrough in the meetings of the committee.

Furthermore, the spokesman for the Volcano of Rage operation announced that the opening of the coastal road will take place soon, after reaching an agreement between the government and the Sirte-Jufra Liberation Operations Room.

Earlier, head of the Presidential Council Mohammed Menfi asked his loyal forces to open the coastal road. However, they demanded the redeployment of LNA in the vicinity of the road linking the east and west of the country, and the withdrawal of its “loyal mercenaries”.



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.