Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s Political Return Worries Opponents

 Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, attends a hearing behind bars in a courtroom in Zintan May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, attends a hearing behind bars in a courtroom in Zintan May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s Political Return Worries Opponents

 Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, attends a hearing behind bars in a courtroom in Zintan May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, attends a hearing behind bars in a courtroom in Zintan May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Recent reports in Libya are claiming that the son of late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, will soon address the Libyan people in a speech to announce his his position on the upcoming Dec. 24 elections.

It is not entirely clear whether Gaddafi is actually considering running for the presidency, or if he only intends to support candidates in the parliamentary elections.

However, his return to politics, whether crowned with success or met with failure at the polls, will be an achievement for Gaddafi, who had been for years the expected successor to his father. But since the fall of the regime ten years ago, he has been either chased, imprisoned, or completely cut off from the public life.

Gaddafi was not, in fact, the only candidate to succeed his father. But the many roles he assumed over the years suggested that he was the first and favorite candidate among the colonel’s sons.

Gaddafi’s eldest son from his second wife, Safia Farkash, played a key role in the 1990s in settling Libya’s foreign issues, pertaining to actions attributed to his father’s regime, such as the bombing of civilian planes (Pan American and UTA) and nightclubs (La Belle in Berlin), and many others.

Gaddafi did not only deal with foreign affairs, but also played key roles in improving the image of his father’s regime inside the country by launching the Libya of Tomorrow project, and initiating reconciliation with the Islamists, his father’s staunch opponents

He was hence accepted at the internal and external levels for the succession of the colonel, whenever the latter chose to move away from power. But the uprising of Feb. 17, 2011 came to destroy, not only the succession project, but the entire Libyan authority. The head of the regime and his son, Mutassim, were killed after their capture in their hometown of Sirte in Oct. 2011.

Khamis Gaddafi, another son of the colonel, who led fierce battles in the west of the country, was also killed in an air strike along with his relative, the son of former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, near the city of Tarhuna.

Muammar Gaddafi had earlier lost his son, Saif al-Arab, who was not involved in politics, in an air strike that targeted a family home in Tripoli (the raid was likely targeting the hiding place of the colonel).

Saif al-Islam himself almost met the fate of his brothers. He miraculously survived a raid targeting his convoy in Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, where he lost fingers on his right hand. He was arrested by the Zintan brigades in Nov. 2011, after he fled to Ubari in the south of the country.

Amid clear preparations for Gaddafi’s return to the political scene, alleged opinion polls distributed by his supporters put him at the forefront of the contestants in the presidential elections, which are expected to take place in December.

However, serious questions are raised about the legality of such move. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague since 2011, on several charges, including allegations that he tried to bring in mercenaries to defend his father’s regime during the revolution.

In addition, the Court of Appeal in Tripoli issued a death sentence against him in 2015. The judgment was issued in absentia at the time, as he was being held in Zintan.

Gaddafi was released by his captors in 2017. Since then, he has not made any public appearance, except in an interview with the New York Times earlier this year.

Many Libyan parties say that they are in contact with him. His supporters participated in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which produced the new Libyan interim authority (the government of Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh and the Presidential Council, headed by Muhammad al-Menfi).

If he runs in the upcoming elections, he is expected to obtain good results within the tribes and cities that used to support his father’s regime and fought with him in the 2011 revolution.

He is also believed to enjoy undeclared Russian support, knowing that the Tripoli government had for years arrested two people it accused of being Russian agents, who were in contact with Gaddafi’s son.

The relationship is somewhat vague between Saif al-Islam and the commander of the Libyan National Army, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar - who may see Gaddafi’s son as an unwelcome competitor.

Saif al-Islam is also likely to face tension with the Islamists who dominate western Libya. In fact, at the beginning of the new millennium, he had an important role in releasing hundreds of Islamists, who were imprisoned by his father. But those turned against him, joining the revolution in 2011. Gaddafi’s candidacy and victory in the elections could raise their fears of a possible retaliation.



Hamas Says Ready to Free All Hostages at Once in Gaza Truce Phase Two

The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Hamas Says Ready to Free All Hostages at Once in Gaza Truce Phase Two

The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Hamas signaled on Wednesday that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of an ongoing ceasefire.  

Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing phase one of the fragile truce, which has held since taking effect on January 19 despite accusations of violations on both sides.  

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that talks would begin "this week" on the second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

"We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages as in the current first phase," senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other armed groups.  

Nunu said this step was meant "to confirm our seriousness and complete readiness to move forward in resolving this issue, as well as to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce".  

Under the ceasefire's first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.  

Wednesday's offer came after Israel and Hamas announced a deal for the return of all six remaining living hostages eligible for release under phase one in a single swap this weekend.  

Hamas also agreed on Tuesday to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next.  

After the completion of the first phase, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza.  

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said on Wednesday that it would release the body of Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz on Thursday. The group said Lifshitz was one of the hostages killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza.  

- 'Room to pressure Hamas' -  

Muhammad Shehada, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that after more than a year of devastating Israeli assault in Gaza, "Hamas wants to prevent the war resuming at any cost", albeit with some "red lines".  

"And one of those red lines is that they should continue to exist, basically, whereas (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's position is that they should dismantle themselves," he said.  

Since the start of the war, Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas's capacity to fight or govern, something the group has rejected.  

But the appearance that Washington is now in complete alignment with Netanyahu's government, as displayed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit this week, strengthened the Israeli premier's hand in negotiations, according to Michael Horowitz, an expert at the risk management consultancy Le Beck International.  

It gives Netanyahu "more room to pressure Hamas", Horowitz said, adding that US President Donald Trump "prefers that the agreement moves forward, but he's leaving the field open to Netanyahu... as long as the ceasefire is maintained".  

- 'Held onto hope' -

Among the bodies Hamas said it would hand over on Thursday are those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have become national symbols in Israel of the hostages' ordeal.  

The boys' father Yarden Bibas was taken hostage separately on October 7, 2023, and was released alive during an earlier hostage-prisoner swap.  

While Hamas said Shiri Bibas and her boys were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed this, and many supporters remain unconvinced of their deaths, including members of the Bibas family.  

"I ask that no one eulogize my family just yet. We have held onto hope for 16 months, and we are not giving up now," the boys' aunt, Ofri Bibas, wrote on Facebook late Tuesday following Hamas's announcement.  

Israeli authorities have confirmed that the remains of four hostages are due to be returned on Thursday, although they have not officially named them.  

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has acted as go-between in the exchanges, called for a respectful handover of the hostages' remains.  

"We once again call for all releases to be conducted in a private and dignified manner, including when they tragically involve the deceased," it said.  

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.  

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.  

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.  

Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Gazans, some of whom have been released in previous rounds of hostage-prisoner exchanges.