Libya Arrests Man Accused of Murdering 16 Egyptians

A picture published by the Libyan 444th Combat Brigade of the Libyan accused of killing 16 Egyptians
A picture published by the Libyan 444th Combat Brigade of the Libyan accused of killing 16 Egyptians
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Libya Arrests Man Accused of Murdering 16 Egyptians

A picture published by the Libyan 444th Combat Brigade of the Libyan accused of killing 16 Egyptians
A picture published by the Libyan 444th Combat Brigade of the Libyan accused of killing 16 Egyptians

A Libyan security unit affiliated with the Tripoli Military District arrested the man accused of shooting 16 Egyptians in Bani Walid in 2016.

The 444th Combat Brigade announced that its undercover unit succeeded in arresting the man, H.A., on Wednesday evening.

He is wanted by the Libyan Public Prosecutor for killing 16 Egyptians by firing squad, and all legal measures have been taken against him ahead of his transfer to the Public Prosecutor.

Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement in April 2016 that the Egyptian “illegal immigrants” had been killed by members of a trafficking ring whose identities are still unknown.

Libya’s Armed Forces said that murders caused widespread anger at local and international levels and have been discussed extensively by Egyptian and Arab media.

They also stressed that the crackdown against crime would not stop anytime soon, adding: “We remind everyone that we will strike with an iron fist against anyone who dares to harm the security of citizens and residents, and that … criminals will be punished no matter where they escape.”

Meanwhile, the Magarha tribe, the family tribe of Abdullah al-Senussi, granted the Libyan authorities 72 hours to release him. Otherwise, it will have to reduce the water flow of the artificial river and oil supply.

Senussi, former chief intelligence and the son-in-law of the late President Muammar Gaddafi is imprisoned in Tripoli.

His tribe demands his immediate release because he suffers from a terminal illness and does not receive the necessary medical treatment.

Sheiks and notables in southern Libya quoted al-Anoud, Senussi’s daughter, saying that she has been banned from seeing her father since last January.

Anoud reported that her father has prostate cancer, and his health is deteriorating after being transferred to a prison supervised by Abdul Rauf Kara, who leads the “Special Deterrence Force.”

The tribe vowed that it “will not remain silent” over the detention of Senussi and threatened to reduce the waters of the artificial river flowing from the south and limit oil from the fields.

They appealed to the relevant human rights organizations, the United Nations and the Red Crescent, to release him.

Senussi, 71, is accused of suppressing the youth protests during the 2011 revolution. He is still being pursued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).



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.