Dbeibeh, Erdogan Discuss Sending More Turkish Military Personnel to Libya

Turkish President Erdogan and Libya's Dbeibeh leave after a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 12, 2021. Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters
Turkish President Erdogan and Libya's Dbeibeh leave after a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 12, 2021. Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters
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Dbeibeh, Erdogan Discuss Sending More Turkish Military Personnel to Libya

Turkish President Erdogan and Libya's Dbeibeh leave after a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 12, 2021. Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters
Turkish President Erdogan and Libya's Dbeibeh leave after a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 12, 2021. Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and head of the Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid Dbeibeh discussed ongoing preparations to hold the Libyan elections in December, as well as raising the number of Turkish military personnel in the north African country.

The two officials had met in Istanbul on Friday.

Turkish media quoted sources as saying Erdogan and Dbeibeh were worried about the security tensions in the country.

Libyan political sources had said that Dbeibeh may run for president and this possibility has been backed by the candidacy criteria spelled out by the electoral commission and which appeared tailored to the GNU chief. This means that the elections will be held on time.

Erdogan told Dbeibeh on Friday said Turkey will continue to back the GNU on all levels.

The officials reviewed the security and military cooperation and marine zones memoranda of understanding that were signed between Tripoli and Ankara under the GNU’s predecessor, the Government of National Accord.

They agreed that the GNU would submit a new official request to Ankara so that it could increase the number of consultative and military personnel in Tripoli. They also agreed that a new batch of Libyan security personnel would be sent to Turkey to receive training.

Sources speculated that Turkey wanted to increase the number of its personnel in Tripoli due to the growing demands that it withdraw its foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya before the elections.

The 5+5 Joint Military Commission met in Geneva in October and approved a plan for the gradual withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries.

It met again in Cairo last week, announcing that Sudan, Chad and Niger have expressed readiness to cooperate to pull out all their fighters from Libya.

Turkey, on the other hand, continued to fly out and in Syrian mercenaries. It did so a day after the Cairo talks concluded and after such flights had been halted for 15 days.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that some 150 mercenaries had returned to Syria, while another 150 were flown to Libya from Turkey.



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.