Protests in Libya over Gaza Hospital Strike

Libyans chant slogans and wave Palestinian and Libyan national flags as they march in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Mahmud Turkia / AFP
Libyans chant slogans and wave Palestinian and Libyan national flags as they march in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Mahmud Turkia / AFP
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Protests in Libya over Gaza Hospital Strike

Libyans chant slogans and wave Palestinian and Libyan national flags as they march in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Mahmud Turkia / AFP
Libyans chant slogans and wave Palestinian and Libyan national flags as they march in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Mahmud Turkia / AFP

Several hundred people protested in Tripoli and other Libyan cities late Tuesday over the deadly strike on a Gaza hospital, according to AFP journalists.

In Tripoli, hundreds of demonstrators of all ages, brandishing Palestinian flags and some covering their faces with Palestinian keffiyehs, crisscrossed the streets of the city center before converging on Martyrs' Square.

They chanted slogans of support for the residents of Gaza and denounced the strike by the "Zionist enemy".

"We give our blood and our souls for Gaza," they chanted in Tripoli and similarly in Misrata, a city 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of the capital.

At least 200 people were killed Tuesday in a strike at a Gaza hospital compound, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory's health ministry, which blamed Israel.

For its part, the Israeli army said the strike was a rocket misfired by the Gaza-based militant group Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas.

Earlier, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, the prime minister of Libya's Tripoli-based internationally-recognized government, condemned the hospital strike, calling it a "despicable crime".

"We denounce this crime which exceeded all limits, and I call on all countries of the world and the great powers in particular, to put an end to these crimes and to open corridors to bring humanitarian aid into the besieged sector," he said on X, formerly Twitter, late Tuesday.

"Targeting medical and civilian facilities is a war crime. This aggression must stop," he said.



UN Rights Chief ‘Gravely Concerned’ by Lebanon Escalation

Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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UN Rights Chief ‘Gravely Concerned’ by Lebanon Escalation

Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

The UN rights chief on Tuesday voiced concern about the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, where his office said nearly 100 people had been reported killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including women, children and medics.

Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since Oct. 2023, and fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year.

"UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk is gravely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon with at least 97 people reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes between the 22nd and 24th of November," Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing.

He said that at least seven paramedics had been reported killed in three Israeli strikes in the south of Lebanon on Nov. 22-23, adding to 226 healthcare worker deaths since Oct. 7, 2023. He did not specify how many of the recent deaths had been verified by UN human rights monitors.

Israel says it targets military capabilities in Lebanon and Gaza and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah, like Hamas, of hiding among civilians, which they deny.