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Tunisia Punishes Swimming Federation in Dispute Over Flag

Tunisian President Kais Saied shaking hands with Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani - (Presidency)
Tunisian President Kais Saied shaking hands with Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani - (Presidency)
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Tunisia Punishes Swimming Federation in Dispute Over Flag

Tunisian President Kais Saied shaking hands with Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani - (Presidency)
Tunisian President Kais Saied shaking hands with Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani - (Presidency)

Tunisian President Kais Saied ordered the board of the national swimming federation dissolved after the country's flag was covered at a meet in Tunis in response to sanctions by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Images on social media showed the flag covered by a red cloth on Friday during the Tunisian Open Masters championship, organized by the national swimming federation at the Rades Olympic pool.

At the end of April, WADA suspended Tunisia's National Anti-Doping Agency (ANAD) for non-compliance with its code. Among the punishments, said WADA, "Tunisia's flag will not be flown at regional, continental or world championships".

On Friday night, a video released by the president's office showed Saied visiting the pool, near Tunis, raising the flag and singing the national anthem, AFP reported.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani and other cabinet members, Saied said the country cannot "tolerate this. Tunisia comes before the Olympic Committee and before any other committees".

An apparently agitated Saied called the flag covering "an act of aggression".

In a statement issued overnight Friday-Saturday, the Tunisian youth and sports ministry announced the dissolution of the swimming federation board, as well as the dismissal the ANAD chief and a sports official in Ben Arous governorate near Tunis.

The decision followed "instructions" by President Saied "to take immediate measures... against those responsible for the incident of hiding the national flag", the statement said.

Announcing the ban, WADA said that until Tunisia complies with the revised World Anti-Doping Code introduced in 2021, it would not host major sporting events and is barred from flying its flag at sporting events, including at the upcoming Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games in July and August.

Tunisian authorities have announced amendments meant to bring the country in line with the code, but WADA has yet to lift its sanctions.

Tunisia has one defending Olympic swimming champion, the 2021 400m freestyle gold medallist Ahmed Hafnaoui, but the 21-year-old said on May 8 he was suffering from an unspecified injury and might not compete in Paris.

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24 Killed as Israeli Airstrikes Hit Northeastern Lebanon

People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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24 Killed as Israeli Airstrikes Hit Northeastern Lebanon

People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country’s news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.

It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah escalated last month.

Israel’s military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

Lebanon’s state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country’s northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.

Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.

The death toll from Friday's strikes in the northeast was expected to increase further, reports said.

Earlier, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on a mountain town overlooking Beirut has killed three people and wounded five.

The ministry gave no further details about the early Friday airstrike on the edge of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut.

An Associated Press journalist who visited the scene said the strike was closer to the nearby village of Ein al-Rummaneh, adding that it caused minor damage to an apartment on the first floor of a building.

On Oct. 6, an Israeli strike in Qamatiyeh killed six people, including three children, the Health Ministry said.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,897 people and injured 13,150 in Lebanon, with 30 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said on Friday.

‘New wave of displacement’

Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian aid coordination agency warned of a new “wave of displacement” in Beirut after the Israeli army issued new orders for people to leave.

Spokesman Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, citing local officials, said the new displacement orders for the capital’s southern suburbs were followed shortly afterward by heavy airstrikes.

He told reporters in Geneva that other recent displacement orders from the Israeli military spurred an estimated 50,000 people to leave the eastern city of Baalbek and head mostly toward the northern Bekaa Valley.

“We are working to access civilians who remain in hard to reach areas. To date, 15 convoys have successfully been organized to reach areas” in four Lebanese cities, including Baalbek, Laerke said. “But the insecurity has an impact on what we can do.”