UN Libya mission alarmed by reported torture footage in detention facility

Guards check on a prisoner at the Kadhafi-era political prisoners jail Ain Zara in Tripoli on November 16, 2011. (AFP file photo)
Guards check on a prisoner at the Kadhafi-era political prisoners jail Ain Zara in Tripoli on November 16, 2011. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 15 January 2025
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UN Libya mission alarmed by reported torture footage in detention facility

Guards check on a prisoner at the Kadhafi-era political prisoners jail Ain Zara in Tripoli on November 16, 2011. (AFP file photo
  • The UN mission said the footage was consistent with what it described as “documented patterns of human rights violations in detention facilities across Libya”

CAIRO: The UN Libya mission expressed on Tuesday its alarm over what it said was footage circulating on social media featuring “brutal torture and ill-treatment” of detainees at the Gernada detention facility in eastern Libya.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the location nor date of the footage, however architectural details seen on the videos, including the type of tiles on the floor, the wall painting and cell bars are consistent with file imagery of the prison from corroborating reports.

“As UNSMIL continues to verify the circumstances of the circulated footage, it strongly condemns these acts that constitute serious violations of international human rights law,” it said.

The UN mission said the footage was consistent with what it described as “documented patterns of human rights violations in detention facilities across Libya.”

It also called for an immediate investigation into the accusations, adding that it is coordinating with the General Command of Libyan National Army for “unrestricted access to UNSMIL’s human rights officers and other independent monitors to the Gernada facility as well as other detention centers under their control.”

There was no immediate comment from Libyan authorities regarding the videos or the UN report.
The North African country has plunged into chaos and lawlessness after the toppling of the regime of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi in NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

 

 


PLO is the ‘only legitimate representative’ of Palestinians, minister tells UN Security Council

PLO is the ‘only legitimate representative’ of Palestinians, minister tells UN Security Council
Updated 10 sec ago
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PLO is the ‘only legitimate representative’ of Palestinians, minister tells UN Security Council

PLO is the ‘only legitimate representative’ of Palestinians, minister tells UN Security Council
  • Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian calls for all Palestinians to work ‘under one regime, one law and a single armed forces’
  • Israeli representative calls on council members to condemn Hamas and designate it as a terror group

NEW YORK CITY: Palestine’s foreign minister on Monday said that the State of Palestine has “legal and political” jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip and all occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and warned that any attempt to annex the West Bank would be a violation of international law.

Varsen Aghabekian told a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York that the “imperative” to uphold the legitimate rights of Palestinians requires “unity of our land and our people under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”

She added: “It also requires everyone to commit to the PLO political program and international commitments, and to work under one regime, one law and a single armed forces.”

Her statement came as debates continue about the future role of Hamas in Gaza. Israel and several other countries believe the group, which was responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and hundreds taken hostage, should be disqualified from playing any part in the future of the battered territory.

Aghabekian called for the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on Sunday to be fully implemented, in order to allow the Palestinian Authority “to shoulder its full responsibilities in Gaza,” and for the reunification of the Strip with the West Bank “under the management of the Palestinian Authority.”

She also called for a return to a political process that would end Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, and lead to the implementation of a two-state solution.

The high-level meeting of the Security Council was convened as the signature event of Algeria’s presidency of the council for the month of January. More 70 countries attended, including Saudi Arabia.

Aghabekian said the Palestinian government stands ready to govern Gaza and the West Bank in cooperation with “friendly and sisterly” countries and international organizations.

“The Palestinian government is ready to provide basic services, including health, education, water and electricity; to guarantee the return of the displaced to their homes; and to prepare for the reconstruction phase,” the minister told the council.

“We are also committed to managing the (border) crossing points, in collaboration with the EU and Egypt.”

Aghabekian also underscored the important role of the UN Relief and Works Agency, the largest aid agency for Palestinians, describing it as “indispensable and irreplaceable.” A ban by the Knesset that would prevent the agency from working in Israel and the territories it occupies is due to take effect at the end of this month.

“The Israeli occupation powers do not have the right to prevent UNRWA from working,” Aghabekian said.

Reut Shapir Ben Naftaly, the political coordinator at Israel’s UN mission in New York, told the Security Council: “The families of the hostages and the people of Israel know that this moment is only the beginning. This war will not end until every hostage is returned and Hamas’ ability to terrorize is dismantled.”

She said Hamas has turned Gaza into “a fortress of terror, sacrificing their own civilians to shield their operations. It has weaponized schools, hospitals and mosques, transforming them into instruments of war.

“This barbarity demands a resolute and united response from the international community.”

Ben Naftaly added: “Failing to act decisively against Hamas sends a dangerous message to other terrorist organizations that such tactics are permissible.

“It is a test of our collective will to uphold international law and human dignity.”

The diplomat called on the Security Council to take “the most basic, moral step” and “unequivocally condemn Hamas and designate it as the terrorist organization it is.”


Palestinian president Abbas ‘ready to work’ with Trump on two-state solution

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas congratulated US President Donald Trump on his inauguration on Monday. (File/AFP)
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas congratulated US President Donald Trump on his inauguration on Monday. (File/AFP)
Updated 7 min 36 sec ago
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Palestinian president Abbas ‘ready to work’ with Trump on two-state solution

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas congratulated US President Donald Trump on his inauguration on Monday. (File/AFP)
  • “We are ready to work with you to achieve peace during your term, based on a two-state solution,” Abbas said
  • Trump has taken credit for securing a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas congratulated US President Donald Trump on his inauguration on Monday and said he was ready to work for peace with Israel based on a two-state solution.
“We are ready to work with you to achieve peace during your term, based on a two-state solution,” Abbas said in a statement published by the official Wafa news agency.
Abbas said it would mean “the State of Palestine and the State of Israel living side-by-side in security and peace, ensuring security and stability in our region and the world.”
In his first presidential term, from 2017 to 2021, Trump’s administration put together a peace proposal which would have involved Israel annexing much of the occupied West Bank while handing over some territory to a future Palestinian state in return.
The Palestinians strongly rejected the proposal, and Israel abandoned its annexation plans when some Gulf Arab states normalized ties with it under US-brokered agreements.
Trump has taken credit for securing a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff taking part in negotiations that finally produced an agreement that came into effect on Sunday.
A two-state solution has been the basis for the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians going back decades, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to countenance an independent Palestinian state.
He has also rejected any role for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, which Abbas leads, in a post-war Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Abbas had said the PA was ready to assume “full responsibility” for Gaza.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II also congratulated Trump, saying: “We greatly value our partnership with the United States and are committed to working with you toward a more prosperous and peaceful world.”


Relatives of freed Gaza hostages call for release of remaining captives

Relatives of freed Gaza hostages call for release of remaining captives
Updated 18 min 17 sec ago
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Relatives of freed Gaza hostages call for release of remaining captives

Relatives of freed Gaza hostages call for release of remaining captives
  • Mandy Damari, the mother of British-Israeli Emily Damari, said her daughter was “in high spirits.”

RAMAT GAN, Israel: The relatives of the three Israeli hostages released from Gaza by Palestinian militants Hamas called on Monday for all those remaining in the territory to be freed.
Speaking at a press conference at the Sheba hospital where the three women are being treated, they gave no details on the conditions in which their relatives had been held for 471 days or on their health.
Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were released on Sunday as part of the first round of exchanges that also saw around 90 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of Romi Gonen, said: “We got our Romi back, but all families deserve the same outcome, both the living and the dead. Our hearts go out to the other families.”
“We are a people who desire peace but are ready for war when needed,” she added.
Yamit Ashkenazi meanwhile passed on a message from her sister Doron Steinbrecher.
“Everyone needs to return, until the last hostage comes home. Just as I was fortunate to return to my family, so must everyone else.”
Mandy Damari, the mother of British-Israeli Emily Damari, said her daughter was “in high spirits.”
She called for all the hostages to be released and for humanitarian aid that was going into the Gaza Strip to also go to the remaining captives.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 91 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military has said are dead.
A further two hostages who are presumed alive have been held in Gaza since 2014 and 2015 respectively, as has the body of a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war. The three are also due to be released as part of the deal.
Before the press conference, the Israeli military released new footage of the moment the three freed hostages were reunited with their mothers at an Israeli military base.
In the footage, the three women are seen embracing their mothers tightly as they meet for the first time after their release.
 

 


Hamas says next hostages will be released on Saturday as scheduled

Hamas says next hostages will be released on Saturday as scheduled
Updated 12 min 12 sec ago
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Hamas says next hostages will be released on Saturday as scheduled

Hamas says next hostages will be released on Saturday as scheduled
  • Militant group said that the next group of hostages would next be released on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees who are held by Israel
  • Accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip

CAIRO/TEL AVIV: Hamas said on Monday it would next release hostages held in Gaza on Saturday, after an official with the Palestinian militant group had said they would be released a day later than expected.
Hamas is set to release the more than 90 hostages over the coming weeks as part of a complex ceasefire deal reached with Israel this month that could end the 15-month war in Gaza.
The militant group said in a statement that the next group of hostages would next be released on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees who are held by Israel.
Earlier, Nahed Al-Fakhouri, head of the Hamas prisoners’ media office, had said the hostages would be released on Sunday. Hamas had been expected to release four Israeli hostages on Saturday, seven days after the ceasefire came into effect.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reacted to Al-Fakhouri’s statement by telling Reuters the deadline for the hostages to be released was Saturday.
This month, Israel and Hamas agreed to a three-phase ceasefire that could bring an end to the 15-month war in Gaza. The ceasefire came into effect on Sunday with Hamas releasing three Israeli hostages. Israel also released Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The ceasefire accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and release of hostages taken by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.


After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza

After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza
Updated 41 min 47 sec ago
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After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza

After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza
  • Avi Issacharoff: “Hamas is going to remain in power and will continue to build more tunnels and recruit more men, without the emergence of any local alternative”
  • Israel has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and has reduced entire neighborhoods to fields of rubble

GAZA CITY: As a ceasefire brought calm to Gaza’s ruined cities, Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.
The militant group has not only survived 15 months of war with Israel — among the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory — but it remains firmly in control of the coastal territory that now resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. With a surge of humanitarian aid promised as part of the ceasefire deal, the Hamas-run government said Monday that it will coordinate distribution to the desperate people of Gaza.
For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims. That could make a return to fighting more likely, but the results might be the same.
There was an element of theater in Sunday’s handover of three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, when dozens of masked Hamas fighters wearing green headbands and military fatigues paraded in front of cameras and held back a crowd of hundreds who surrounded the vehicles.
The scenes elsewhere in Gaza were even more remarkable: Thousands of Hamas-run police in uniform re-emerged, making their presence known even in the most heavily destroyed areas.
“The police have been here the whole time, but they were not wearing their uniforms” to avoid being targeted by Israel, said Mohammed Abed, a father of three who returned to his home in Gaza City more than seven months after fleeing the area.
“They were among the displaced people in the tents. That’s why there were no thefts,” he said.
Other residents said the police had maintained offices in hospitals and other locations throughout the war, where people could report crimes.
Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll and damage to infrastructure because the group’s fighters and security forces embed themselves in residential neighborhoods, schools and hospitals.
A deeply rooted movement
Opinion polls consistently show that only a minority of Palestinians support Hamas. But the Islamic militant group — which does not accept Israel’s existence — is deeply rooted in Palestinian society, with an armed wing, a political party, media and charities that date back to its founding in the late 1980s.
For decades, Hamas functioned as a well-organized insurgency, able to launch hit-and-run attacks on Israeli forces and suicide bombings in Israel itself. Many of its top leaders have been killed — and quickly replaced. It won a landslide victory in 2006 parliamentary elections, and the following year it seized Gaza from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in a week of street battles.
Hamas then established a fully-fledged government, with ministries, police and a civilian bureaucracy. Its security forces quickly brought Gaza’s powerful families into line and crushed rival armed groups. They also silenced dissent and violently dispersed occasional protests.
Hamas remained in power through four previous wars with Israel. With help from Iran it steadily enhanced its capabilities, extended the range of its rockets and built deeper and longer tunnels to hide from Israeli airstrikes. By Oct. 7, 2023, it had an army of tens of thousands in organized battalions.
In the surprise incursion that triggered the war, its fighters attacked southern Israel by air, land and sea, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hamas-led militants abducted 250 others.
A war like no other
In response, Israel launched an air and ground war that has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and has reduced entire neighborhoods to fields of rubble. Some 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times.
Nearly every day of the war, the Israeli military announced that it had killed dozens of fighters, or taken out a midlevel commander, or dismantled a tunnel complex or obliterated a weapons factory. Israeli forces killed Hamas’ top leader, Yahya Sinwar, and most of his lieutenants. But the exiled leadership is mostly intact and Mohammed Sinwar, his brother, has reportedly assumed a bigger role in Gaza.
The military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters — roughly half of Hamas’ estimated prewar ranks — though it has not provided evidence.
What Israel said were carefully targeted strikes frequently killed women and children and in some cases wiped out entire extended families.
The military blamed civilian casualties on Hamas. But survivors of the bombardment, crammed into tents after their homes were flattened, were a pool of potential recruits.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a prepared speech that Hamas had recruited nearly as many fighters as it lost during the war.
Michael Milshtein, an Israeli expert on Palestinian affairs and former military intelligence officer, said Hamas no longer has the ability to launch an Oct. 7-style attack but has returned to its insurgent roots, using creative tactics like harvesting unexploded Israeli ordnance for homemade bombs.
“Hamas is a chameleon. It changed its colors according to the circumstances,” he said.
“The war is ending with a strong perception of success for Hamas,” he added. “The enlistment capabilities will be crazy. They won’t be able to handle it.”
Israel ensures there is no alternative
Palestinian critics of Hamas have long said there is no military solution to the Mideast conflict, which predates the birth of the militant group by several decades.
They argue that Palestinians would be more likely to break with Hamas if they had an alternative path to ending Israel’s decades-long occupation, which has further entrenched itself during the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has ensured they do not.
He has rebuffed proposals from the United States and friendly Arab countries for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern both Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank ahead of eventual statehood. Instead, he has vowed to maintain open-ended security control over both territories.
Avi Issacharoff, a veteran Israeli journalist — and co-creator of the Netflix hit “Fauda” — said Netanyahu’s refusal to plan for the day after was the “biggest debacle of this war.”
“Israel is waking up from a nightmare into the very same nightmare,” he wrote in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper. “Hamas is going to remain in power and will continue to build more tunnels and recruit more men, without the emergence of any local alternative.”
Netanyahu has threatened to resume the war after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire if Israel’s goals are not met, while Hamas has said it will not release dozens of remaining captives without a lasting truce and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
There’s no reason to think another military campaign would bring about a different result.
In early October, Israeli forces sealed off the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, barring nearly all humanitarian aid, forcing thousands to flee and destroying nearly every structure in their path, including schools and shelters, according to witnesses who fled.
The army had carried out major operations in all three places previously, only to see militants regroup. At least 15 Israeli soldiers have died in northern Gaza this month alone.
When residents returned to Jabaliya on Sunday, they found a sprawling scene of devastation with only a few tilted shells of buildings in a sea of gray rubble.
Dozens of Hamas police kept watch over their return.