Libya Identifies 12 Bodies Buried in Mass Graves

A mass grave is seen in the western Libyan city of Tarhuna. (Tarhuna Victims Association)
A mass grave is seen in the western Libyan city of Tarhuna. (Tarhuna Victims Association)
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Libya Identifies 12 Bodies Buried in Mass Graves

A mass grave is seen in the western Libyan city of Tarhuna. (Tarhuna Victims Association)
A mass grave is seen in the western Libyan city of Tarhuna. (Tarhuna Victims Association)

The Tarhuna Victims Association said on Sunday it has identified 12 bodies recovered last month from mass graves in the western Libyan town of Tarhuna, where scores of corpses have been discovered in recent years.

The 12 corpses include six from Tarhuna, two from each of Qasr Bin Ghashir and Tripoli, one from each of Souq al-Khamis and Bani Walid, it announced.

Residents of the city accuse the Kani militia of committing these crimes over two years ago. The discovery of the mass graves drew widespread local and international condemnation and demands for accountability.

Soon after the war waged by the Libyan National Army on Tripoli ended in June 2020, residents in Tarhuna discovered mass graves with hundreds of bodies. The victims were of all ages and showed signs of torture.

The Victims Association said one of the identified bodies was that of Faraj Al-Sharif Masoud Al-Tarhuni, born in 1989, and who worked for a catering company at Tripoli airport.

Tarhouni is from Qasr Bin Ghashir. He was kidnapped from his home by the Kani militia in June 2019. His corpse was found in one of the mass graves in mid-October 2021.

The Association also identified the body of Tarhuna native Abd al-Hakim Moftah Saad Doma. Born in 1976, he worked in the education sector.

He was kidnapped by the Kani militia in August 2019 and his corpse was found in a mass grave on October 4, 2021.

Last month, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan expressed his shock at the large number of mass graves found in Tarhuna.

He met with families of the victims, saying he had never seen such crimes before in the entire world.

The Libyan prosecution is still investigating the crimes, while the Kani militia has been accused of killing hundreds of prisoners in retaliation to the killing of its leader Mohsen al-Kani.

The Kani militia was comprised of six brothers and their loyalists. They at one point controlled Tarhuna, terrorizing the people and cracking down on dissenting voices..



Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
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Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert said that the “humanitarian city” that Israel’s defense minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert told the daily, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.

Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, has ordered the military to start drawing up operational plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to house initially 600,000 people and eventually the entire Palestinian population, stated the Guardian.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told he daily, when asked about the plans laid out by Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said.

The “humanitarian city” project is backed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area Katz envisages for the camp is a sticking point in the faltering negotiations for a ceasefire deal, Israeli media have reported.