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Libya’s Coast Guard Intercepts 64 Europe-bound Migrants

Libyan Security forces guard a main road in Sebha in southeastern Libya on September 6, 2024. (Photo by Abdullah DOMA / AFP)
Libyan Security forces guard a main road in Sebha in southeastern Libya on September 6, 2024. (Photo by Abdullah DOMA / AFP)
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Libya’s Coast Guard Intercepts 64 Europe-bound Migrants

Libyan Security forces guard a main road in Sebha in southeastern Libya on September 6, 2024. (Photo by Abdullah DOMA / AFP)
Libyan Security forces guard a main road in Sebha in southeastern Libya on September 6, 2024. (Photo by Abdullah DOMA / AFP)

Libya’s coast guard intercepted dozens of Europe-bound migrants on a boat and returned them to shore, authorities said Saturday, a few days after a shipwreck off the country left nearly two dozen dead or missing.

The boat was carrying 64 migrants and was intercepted Friday off the northwestern town of Sirte, according to the town's coast guard unit. It posted images on Facebook showing dozens of migrants, including at least one woman and a child, upon their return, The Associated Press reported. The coast guard also set the migrant boat on fire, a procedure aimed at preventing its reuse by traffickers.

On Wednesday, a boat carrying 32 migrants from Egypt and Syria capsized off Libya’s eastern town of Tobruk, leaving 22 missing and presumed dead. The Libyan coast guard said it rescued nine people and recovered one body.
Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the disorder in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders. The migrants are crowded onto ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages to Europe.
According to the International Organization for Migration's missing migrants project, at least 434 were reported dead and 611 missing off Libya between January and August this year while more than 14,100 migrants were intercepted and brought back to shore.

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Arab World

Germany Calls on Israel to Halt E1 Settlement Plan

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
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Germany Calls on Israel to Halt E1 Settlement Plan

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)

Germany calls on Israel to halt its controversial ​E1 settlement project, said a foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin on Friday, warning that construction carries the risk of ‌creating more ‌instability in the ‌West ⁠Bank ​and ‌the region.

"The plans for the E1 settlement project, it must be said, are part of a comprehensive ⁠intensification of settlement policy in ‌the West Bank, ‍which ‍we have recently ‍observed," said the spokesperson at a regular government press conference.

"It carries the ​risk of creating even more instability, as it ⁠would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank," as well as jeopardize the prospects of a two-state solution, the spokesperson added.

Arab World

Israel Army Says Struck Hezbollah Targets in ‘Several Areas’ of Lebanon

Lebanese army soldiers and paramedics inspect the wreckage of a car that was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Qanarit, near the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2026. (AFP)
Lebanese army soldiers and paramedics inspect the wreckage of a car that was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Qanarit, near the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Army Says Struck Hezbollah Targets in ‘Several Areas’ of Lebanon

Lebanese army soldiers and paramedics inspect the wreckage of a car that was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Qanarit, near the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2026. (AFP)
Lebanese army soldiers and paramedics inspect the wreckage of a car that was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Qanarit, near the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2026. (AFP)

Israel's military said it struck Hezbollah targets in several areas of Lebanon on Friday, a day after the Lebanese army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group in the south.

Under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming the Iran-backed group, which was weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel including two months of all-out war that ended with a November 2024 ceasefire.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic, accusing the group of rearming.

In a statement on Friday, the Israeli military said it struck "several areas in Lebanon", targeting "weapons storage facilities and a weapons production site that were used for the rehabilitation and military build-up of the Hezbollah terrorist organization".

"Additionally, several launch sites and rocket launchers, along with military structures, were struck," it added.

Lebanese official news agency NNA reported strikes on southern Lebanon in areas far from the border, as well as in the eastern Bekaa area where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
No casualties were immediately reported.

"The targets that were struck, and Hezbollah's reestablishment activity in these sites, constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and pose a threat to the State of Israel," the military statement said.

Lebanon's army said Thursday it had "achieved the objectives of the first phase" of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani River -- around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border -- with the intention to extend it to the rest of the country.
Israel said the efforts were encouraging but not enough.

"The ceasefire agreement... states clearly, Hezbollah must be fully disarmed," the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

"Efforts made toward this end by the Lebanese government and the Lebanese armed forces are an encouraging beginning, but they are far from sufficient," it added.

Lebanese official media said a strike on Thursday killed one person near the southern city of Sidon, as Israel's army said it targeted a Hezbollah operative.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River and have its military infrastructure dismantled in the evacuated areas.

The group has refused to surrender its weapons.

Arab World

Yemen's STC to Dissolve Itself

Soldiers are seen outside the headquarters of the Southern Transitional Council in Aden, Yemen. (Reuters)
Soldiers are seen outside the headquarters of the Southern Transitional Council in Aden, Yemen. (Reuters)
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Yemen's STC to Dissolve Itself

Soldiers are seen outside the headquarters of the Southern Transitional Council in Aden, Yemen. (Reuters)
Soldiers are seen outside the headquarters of the Southern Transitional Council in Aden, Yemen. (Reuters)

Yemen's Southern Transitional Council and its institutions will be dismantled effective Friday.

The move paves the way for participation in the southern Yemen dialogue that will be hosted by Riyadh.

In a statement, members of the STC said the council had not achieved its desired goals. They added that they did not take part in the decision to carry out unilateral military moves in the eastern Hadhramaut and al-Mahra governorates.

They said the actions there had "harmed the Southern Cause."

Vice President of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Abdul Rahman Al-Mahrami, also known as Abou Zaraa, and PLC member Ahmed Said bin Braik were present at the STC meeting.

The statement called on various officials and figures to join the dialogue, hoping that the Riyadh conference would "come up with a vision to resolve the Southern Cause."

It also expressed its gratitude to Saudi Arabia for hosting the conference.