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..



Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said.

The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of meters from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.

Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.