Tunisia Probes Corruption Allegations against Ministers, MPs

Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)
Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)
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Tunisia Probes Corruption Allegations against Ministers, MPs

Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)
Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)

A former Tunisian prime minister, ministers, MPs and senior economic officials are facing charges of financial and administrative corruption after a non-governmental organization opened investigations against them.

Among them are former Finance Minister Nizar Yaish and current Central Bank Marouane El Abassi, who are both candidates to the position of prime minister. Reports have said that they have declined the appointment.

The Raqabah anti-corruption monitor, which monitors corruption cases in the country, accused sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, El Abassi and Yaish, of financial and administrative fraud and illicit profits in financial issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The head of the monitor, Imed Daimi, former minister and advisor at the presidential palace in 2012 and 2013, said that the Competition Council (a government agency that follows up corruption cases) pledged to file an “urgent case against the governor of the Central Bank, the Minister of Finance and the former prime minister.”

Meanwhile, the presidency has intensified consultations with a number of countries and regional and international capitals, including Washington, Paris, Algeria, Cairo and Libya, to resolve the crisis in Tunisia.

President Kais Saied, who had met with the Algerian Foreign Minister twice and received phone calls from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, received an Egyptian delegation headed by Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss the situation in the country. The Tunisian presidency also received phone calls from French and American officials.



Israeli Strikes Kill 12 People in Gaza, Keep up Pressure on North

Family members mourn next to the bodies of their loved ones at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike that claimed the lives of at least eight people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 03 November 2024. (EPA)
Family members mourn next to the bodies of their loved ones at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike that claimed the lives of at least eight people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 03 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 12 People in Gaza, Keep up Pressure on North

Family members mourn next to the bodies of their loved ones at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike that claimed the lives of at least eight people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 03 November 2024. (EPA)
Family members mourn next to the bodies of their loved ones at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike that claimed the lives of at least eight people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 03 November 2024. (EPA)

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday and residents said they feared new air and ground attacks and forced evacuations were aimed at emptying areas in the enclave's north to create buffer zones against Hamas fighters.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said Israel was scaling back the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza, compounding shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies.

Israel denied this. But it said separately on Monday it had officially notified the United Nations that it was ending its relations with UNRWA, which has been a vital provider of aid to Palestinian civilians during the 13-month-long war between Israel and Hamas.

In the latest bloodshed, medics said seven people were killed in an attack on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahia on Monday. Five more were killed in separate strikes in central and southern parts of the enclave, medics told Reuters.

Several people were wounded in the attacks, they said, adding that Israeli forces had sent tanks into the northeast of Nuseirat camp earlier on Monday.

Israel deployed tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia on Oct. 5, saying it intended to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces were continuing to bomb the Kamal Adwan Hospital and had injured many staff and patients.

"The medical staff cannot move between the hospital departments and cannot rescue their injured colleagues. It seems that a decision has been made to execute all the staff who refused to evacuate the hospital," it said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on that situation.

Palestinians said the new offensives and orders for people to leave were "ethnic cleansing" aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones. Israel denies this, saying it is combating Hamas fighters who launch attacks from there.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of Palestinians killed since Oct. 5 at 1,800. It said 4,000 others were wounded.

There was no confirmation on the figure from the territory's health ministry and Israel has repeatedly accused the Hamas media office of exaggerating the figures of the dead.

Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, according to Gaza authorities, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.

The war erupted after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

'UNSPEAKABLE SUFFERING'

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said on Monday that Israel has scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time. This represented only 6 percent of the commercial and humanitarian supplies that used to enter Gaza before the war, he said.

"This cannot meet the needs of 2 million people, many of whom are starving, sick, and in desperate conditions," Lazzarini said on X.

An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.

Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.

Earlier on Monday, Israel's foreign ministry said it had officially notified the United Nations it was cancelling the agreement that regulated its relations with UNRWA since 1967 - effectively banning it.

"Restricting humanitarian access and at the same time dismantling UNRWA will add an additional layer of suffering to already unspeakable suffering," Lazzarini said.