Tunisia Police Turn Water Cannon on Protest against President

Tunisian demonstrators clash with police during protests against President Kais Saied, on the 11th anniversary of the Tunisian revolution in the capital Tunis on Friday. (AFP)
Tunisian demonstrators clash with police during protests against President Kais Saied, on the 11th anniversary of the Tunisian revolution in the capital Tunis on Friday. (AFP)
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Tunisia Police Turn Water Cannon on Protest against President

Tunisian demonstrators clash with police during protests against President Kais Saied, on the 11th anniversary of the Tunisian revolution in the capital Tunis on Friday. (AFP)
Tunisian demonstrators clash with police during protests against President Kais Saied, on the 11th anniversary of the Tunisian revolution in the capital Tunis on Friday. (AFP)

Tunisian police used water cannon and sticks to disperse more than 1,000 protesters trying to reach central Tunis on Friday to demonstrate against the president in defiance of COVID-19 restrictions.

A heavy police presence prevented many protesters gathering in Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main street in central Tunis that is the traditional focal point of demonstrations including during the 2011 revolution that brought democracy.

Police then tried to disperse several different groups of protesters, at least one of which had hundreds of demonstrators, witnesses said, kicking and pushing them to force them back.

The Interior Ministry said 1,200 people had protested and said its forces had exercised restraint.

Opposition parties including the moderate Islamist Ennahda are protesting against President Kais Saied's suspension of parliament, assumption of executive power and moves to rewrite the constitution, which they call a coup.

"Preventing free Tunisians from protesting on the revolution anniversary is shameful... and is an attack on freedoms and represents a big decline under the coup authorities," said Imed Khemiri, an Ennahda member of the suspended parliament.

Dozens of police cars stood in the area and two water cannon were used outside the Interior Ministry building, which is located on the same street.

Friday's protest goes against a ban on all indoor or outdoor gatherings the government announced on Tuesday to stop a COVID-19 wave.

"Today Saied's only response to opponents is with force and the security forces... it is so sad to see Tunisia like a barracks on the date of our revolution," said Chayma Issa, an opposition activist.

Ennahda and other parties taking part in the protest accused the government of introducing the ban and resuming its night curfew for political rather than health reasons as a way of preventing protests.

Though Saied's action in July appeared very popular at first after years of economic stagnation and political paralysis, analysts say he appears to have since lost some support.

Tunisia's economy remains mired by the pandemic, there has been little progress in gaining international support for the fragile public finances and the government Saied appointed in September has announced an unpopular budget for 2022.

Friday falls on what Tunisians had previously marked as the anniversary of the revolution, the day the former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country. Saied decreed last year the anniversary would fall on the December date of a street vendor's suicide that triggered the uprising.



Trump, Hosting Netanyahu, Urges End to Gaza War, Thinks That Is Not ‘Too Distant’ 

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump, Hosting Netanyahu, Urges End to Gaza War, Thinks That Is Not ‘Too Distant’ 

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would like the war in Gaza to stop and thinks that will happen relatively soon, as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Asked if he would deliver on his election campaign promise to end the war in Gaza, Trump said: "I'd like to see the war stop, and I think the war will stop at some point, that won't be in the too-distant future."

Israel launched the war after Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.

Trump said work was ongoing to free hostages held by Hamas, but said securing the release of all the hostages was "a long process."

Trump and Netanyahu spoke to reporters in the Oval Office after their meeting.

Following the January ceasefire that saw some hostages released, Netanyahu said, Israel was working on "another deal we hope will succeed."

"We're committed to getting all the hostages out, but also eliminating the evil tyranny of Hamas in Gaza and enabling the people of Gaza to freely make a choice to go wherever they want," he said.

Netanyahu said he had also discussed with Trump the US president's "bold vision" for the future of Gaza, a reference to a proposal for the US to take over the enclave that Trump put forward multiple times during the opening weeks of his administration.

Trump's plan has been globally condemned as a proposal for ethnic cleansing.

Trump on Monday said having "a peace force like the United States there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing" and once again suggested that Palestinians from Gaza could be moved to different countries.