Sirens warning of an impending rocket attack blared early Monday morning in communities in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council in southern Israel. The projectile reportedly landed inside the Gaza Strip.

The Code Red alarm sounded just before 7:00 a.m. on Monday. The IDF said in a statement shortly thereafter that they didn’t identify any rocket impacts in Israeli territory.

In response, Israeli air force jets struck “terror infrastructure belonging to the Hamas organization in the northern Gaza Strip.” Palestinian media also reported Israeli tank fire at Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in either incident.

Earlier this month, tensions between Israel and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip flared after a series of rocket launches into Israel and Israeli retaliation.

One of the rockets hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot and exploded in the middle of a street, causing some damage to the road, cars and nearby homes. Three people were hospitalized after suffering anxiety attacks.

The Islamic State-affiliated Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis terrorist group took responsibility for that attack. In a statement, the group said the attack on Sderot was a response to Hamas arresting several members of the organization.

In response, the IDF struck Hamas targets, first with tank fire and then with a series of airstrikes in Gaza, hitting “key Hamas strategic infrastructure,” according to a military official.

In a statement, the IDF explained that Hamas ultimately “bears responsibility for every terror incident emanating from” the Gaza Strip.”

After the airstrikes Hamas reportedly sent a message to Israel calling for calm and saying the terrorist group was not interested in a further escalation of tensions.

A Hamas official said the group told Israel it would not allow other terrorist groups within Gaza to further inflame the situation, according to Israel Radio. He said that the group passed on the message via a third party, Israel Radio reported.

toi.com

Even as Libya is tossed as a political football during United States presidential candidates’ debates, ground-level complications are increasing in Benghazi and beyond despite recent blows to ISIS and a tentative return to oil exports.

In Ganfouda, a southwestern suburb of Benghazi, the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Gen. Khalifa Haftar, asserts it is clearing out the last stronghold of al-Qaida-affiliated militants, while the United Nations cautions against harming innocent civilians in the neighborhood.

“We support the fight against terrorist organizations as identified by relevant Security Council resolutions,” said Martin Kobler, the U.N. Secretary General’s Libya envoy, “but such a fight should be conducted in line with international law.”

An Amnesty International field report said Ganfouda is devastated by the fighting — with food, water and electricity supplies cut off. Residents told Amnesty International researchers their children have become emaciated after months of a blockade by the LNA.

Haftar’s proposed evacuation plan defines women, children and the elderly as the only civilians remaining in Ganfouda and designates all males in the neighborhood as “fighters” who must be surrendered.

“There might be Turkish, Qatari, Berber and African ‘families’ in there,” said Ahmed Al-Masmari, a LNA spokesman. “And they are terrorists.”

In addition to pounding Ganfouda, Haftar’s forces have captured oil facilities along the coast and even made a push for the eastern fringes of Sirte, birthplace of former leader Muammar Gadhafi and, until recently, the main ISIS beachhead in Libya.

After Haftar’s deployment was initially condemned by Western nations in September, his ability to secure the facilities and agreement to transfer proceeds to the country’s central bank has resulted in a 100 percent rise in exports, according to National Oil Co. chairman Mustafa Sanalla.

The “Solid Structure” militia, aligned with the Government of National Accord (GNA), is now vying with the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army over which force will take credit for the final blow against ISIS in Sirte.

“Solid Structure has split the Daesh [Islamic State] terrorists’ last enclave in Sirte’s Third District this weekend and now surround the 600-block area in the center,” militia spokesman Ali Almabrouk said.

The Haftar-affiliated Libyan Forces’ Press Service says it killed 80 Islamic State jihadists in the city of Sirte this week as its troops closed in from the coastal road to Benghazi.
Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are militarily backing Haftar while providing political support to the Tobruk-based elected parliament in eastern Libya, which they see as a counterweight to an Islamist orientation inside the U.N.-supported GNA.

“Haftar’s seizure of the oil ports was a strategic response to the GNA’s gains against Islamic State,” said Ziad Akl, a researcher at Cairo’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

As the two main factions struggle for dominance on land, more than five European navies have imposed a sea cordon off Libya’s coast with the aim of stopping the flow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who have benefited from the lack of effective border controls. The International Migrants Organization says the effort has rescued more than 12,000 Africans from dangerous boats on the Mediterranean this year.

European Union member states Austria and Hungary have proposed paying Libya to establish “migrant cities” to prevent their arrival on the continent.

“The crisis in our country makes these proposals unrealistic,” said Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala, alleging that handling hundreds of thousands of African asylum-seekers is beyond the capacity of his government.

Siala points to the reality in Libya’s capital city. Lawlessness and a breakdown in public services mark daily life in Tripoli, with residents suffering from nine-hour power outages while witnessing an escalation of politically motivated kidnappings and factional turf wars between militias.

“Clashes in Tripoli are a clear sign that GNA’s interim security arrangements have failed to deliver and militias continue to rule here,” said Mohamed Eljarh, a Libya analyst for the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Harri Center.

Six months after a highly publicized return to the capital, the GNA now holds its deliberations in Tunis with members of its executive body citing logistical issues and security considerations as obstacles to meeting in any Libyan city. At a recent meeting of the nine-man Presidential Council, its leader Fayez al-Sarraj acknowledged that the GNA’s ability to project power is compromised by its failure to operate in Tripoli.

“The current political standing will not accept the GNA’s presence abroad any further,” Sarraj said.

The GNA leader’s assessment is underscored by a report issued by the World Bank, where officials are still looking at how to structure a loan to rebuild Libyan civil society.

“The Libyan economy is near collapse as political stalemate and civil conflict prevent it from fully exploiting its sole natural resource: oil,” warned the global lender. “The country needs humanitarian aid and specific programs to address the destruction and lack of basic services that a large part of the population faces.”

Zahi Mogherbi, a retired Benghazi University political science professor, agrees with the grim description of Libya’s turmoil but says foreign diplomats and international agencies are worsening the problem by trying to impose solutions.

‘‘There are differences in priorities between what Libyans want and what the international community wants,” Mogherbi said. “They [outside players] prioritize fighting ISIS and illegal migration rather than issues such as general insecurity, kidnapping, high crime and the militia control over Libyan society.”

themedialine.org.

Eleven men were arrested by the National Gendarmerie for their affiliation to a terrorist group, the Ministry of National Defence said in a statement.

“As part of the fight against organised crime, detachments of the People’s National Army intercepted five smugglers, seized a Kalashnikov submachine gun, a quantity of ammunitions and explosives,” the statement said. The men were captured in Sidi Bel Abbes.

Coastguards also thwarted an illegal migration attempt of 11 people aboard a makeshift boat in Annaba, east of Algeria, while 14 illegal immigrants were arrested in the cities of Illizi and Adrar, the statement added.

Earlier this week Algerian forces intercepted a terrorist cell in Batna where homemade bombs were being made. Seven men were arrested.

The North African country joins Morocco and Tunisia in seeing an increase in home grown terrorists as the region becomes more susceptible to Daesh-inspired attacks. Training in Libya, many Daesh fighters then attempt to enter neighbouring Algeria and Tunisia to carry our similar operations and training.

middleeastmonitor.com/

Thirteen members of Sudan’s Dafuri rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), who have been operating in Libya for some months are reported to have been killed today after being attacked by a Salafist militia from Kufra near the oasis town of Jaghboub.

The militia, the Subol Al-Salam brigade, said it also managed to destroy two vehicles belonging to the JEM group. These latter were also alleged to includes a number of Tebus. The Kufra brigade, for its part, is largely made up of members of the Zwai tribe, inveterate foes of the Tebus.

A month ago, the JEM unit reportedly seized and held for ransom four Libyans who were hunting birds – two from Jaghboub, one from Beida and the other from Shahat. It is said to have been paid LD 320,000 to release the four: LD 80,000 each.

The Subol Al-Salam brigade was formed following the clashes in Kufra between Tebus and Zuwais in October 2015 and has become one of the main law enforcement bodies from Kufra to the Bu-Zerag checkpoint some 400 kilometres to the north on the road to Jalu. It controls that checkpoint as well.

Its commander, Abdulrahman Hashim Al-Kilani, is said to be operating in alliance with Field Marshal Khalifa Hafter from whom he reportedly received 40 armoured Toyota vehicles last month.

libyaherald.com

Frequency of attacks rising as jihadists return from fighting in Syria, Libya…

Two Islamic State fighters were killed in the northern Sinai overnight Thursday, according to reports. The men were killed in a firefight with Egyptian security forces operating in the Rafah area, near Egypt’s border with Gaza, Israel Radio reported.

According to the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat, the growing frequency of jihadist attacks in Sinai is caused by the return of Egyptian fighters who had gone to Syria and Libya to fight in the ranks of the Islamic State’s forces there.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in comments published on Saturday that his country’s war against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula would be long, but that conditions in the vast and arid region were improving.

In an interview with Egypt’s three state-owned newspapers, he acknowledged that both the militants and government forces were getting better at fighting each other in the strategic area bordering Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“Conditions in Sinai are improving and (our) efforts are continuing because the war is long,” said el-Sissi, whose comments came one day after Islamic State militants attacked an army checkpoint in Sinai, killing 12 soldiers and wounding at least six more.

“The terrorists are evolving and we are improving our operations,” he said.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement Saturday, saying its fighters killed 20 “apostates” and seized all weapons at the checkpoint, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the Suez Canal, near the town of Bir el-Abd.

The Egyptian military said Friday that troops killed 15 militants in a gun battle at the checkpoint. The IS statement said its fighters had “returned safely” to their base.

Journalists have had virtually no access to northern Sinai in recent years.

toi.com

A military source announced that the Air Forces launched  air strikes on a position for terrorist groups in ‘Al- Hoot’ market area in the center of Benghazi.

The source confirmed that the raid came against the backdrop of monitoring terrorist movements in the region, thus the goal was accurately targeted.

The Air Force has intensified its reconnaissance  over flights and fighting the past two days over Sabri and Al-Hoot market areas , while shelling and artillery bombardment was going on over Qanfodh area.

libya24.tv

The Shin Bet said that it had uncovered an Islamic Jihad plot to carry out an attack in Be’er Sheva and kidnap an Israeli soldier.

The security service and the police said they arrested the members of an Islamic Jihad cell that was planning a major attack on a wedding hall in the southern city of Be’er Sheva.

The suspects planned to carry out the wedding hall attack by throwing grenades at the people dancing and setting off explosives concealed in the furniture while using weapons hidden in trash cans outside, according to the indictment. This, in addition to the kidnapping and murder of a policeman, officer or soldier.

Indictments were filed against three Palestinians who entered Israel illegaly and an Israeli citizen from Tel Sheva in the south. Charges included security-related offenses such as contacting a foreign agent and conspiring to assist an enemy.

Mahmoud Yusuf Hassin Abu Taha, a resident of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, was arrested on September 21 when he tried to enter Israel through the Erez crossing, supposedly for business purposes. The Shin Bet said theyt learned during his interrogation that Abu Taha headed a terrorist cell directed by the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. The news of his arrest was only cleared for release on Thursday.
Abu Taha was recruited by a senior Islamic Jihad activist in Gaza, Wa’il Sufyan Abu Taha, who instructed him to organize a military foundation for the terrorist cell and prepare to carry out the attacks.

Mahmoud Abu Taha recruited three others for the mission, and these suspects were also arrested.
One of the people arrested is Shafiq Hamad Ahmad Abu Taha, 55, from the Gaza Strip, who was living in Israel illegally. He was employed in the wedding hall where they planned to conduct the attack. Another suspect, Ahmad Taysir Abed Al-Rahman Abu Taha, 39, from the Gaza Strip, was also living in Israel illegally. The last suspect, Rani Masoud Nassir Abu Amara, 40, originally from Dir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, now lives in Tel Sheva.

Investigators found that Mahmoud Abu Taha and Shafiq Abu Taha made a preliminary visit to the wedding hall in order to plan for the attack, considering how they could maximize the number of victims.
At the same time, Mahmoud Abu Taha began planning the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier. He received thousands of shekels from Islamic Jihad to plan and carry out such an attack to use for logistical things like renting an apartment in Israel. The plan was to lure the soldier to the apartment, where the suspects would then murder him. They then planned to bury him secretly, before smuggling his belongings into Gaza where they would be used by the organization as part of a plan to negotiate with Israel.

Indictments were filed against all four of the suspects on Thursday in Be’er Sheva District Court.
The Shin Bet said the affair shows the way terrorist groups exploit entry permits into Israel, which are granted for humanitarian and economic reasons; as well as the danger of the terrorists’ use of Palestinians who are residing in Israel illegally.

haaretz.com

General Security – General Directorate members arrested a network of 8 Syrians who were planning to carry out suicidal attacks over the Lebanese territories, a communiqué issued by the General Security said on Thursday.

The communiqué noted that the General Security department arrested the Syrians (M.N.), (Kh.N.), (H.Kh), (A.W), (M.N.), (M.Sh), (A.N.) and (R.N) over the crime of belonging to a terrorist group and communicating with fanatic groups.

The arrest came after an intensive and precise follow up on the activities of terrorist groups and the sleeping cells affiliated by them, the communiqué said.

Upon investigations, the arrested confessed that they rented a room in order to accommodate suicidal groups and prepare bombs and explosive belts to carry out suicidal operations against tourism cafés and restaurants and UNIFIL patrols.

The detainees were referred to the concerned judicial authorities and efforts are ongoing to arrest the other culprits.

leb.gov.lb

Forces fighting ISIS in Sirte and loyal to the government of national accord became involved in the struggle between the government and the illegitimate forces in Tripoli.

Of the first foreign states to comment on recent developments, France officially condemned the occupation of the Libyan High Council of State.

The ministry issued the statement on its website, which said: “France condemns the occupation by force of the Libyan High Council of State, the institution created by the inter-Libyan political agreement, the only legitimate framework and only possible way to restore peace and stability in Libya.”

The ministry also reaffirmed its full support for Prime Minister Fayez Serraj’s Government of National Accord and support the efforts of Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General Martin Kobler.

France called on all political forces in the country to unite under the authority of the Presidency Council in order to bring about national reconciliation, effectively combat terrorism and human trafficking and work toward the country’s reconstruction.

Meanwhile, al-Nabaa television station reported official spokesperson of Solid Structure operations Mohammed al-Ghosari saying that the forces will not allow anyone to tarnish the legitimate political agreement and its institutions.

Libya’s Rebels room stated that it supports the return of the former parliament and its government. The room asked its brigades belonging to the chief staff to be fully prepared and stand against traitors.

For their part, presidential security said in a statement issued that the only legitimate body is the illegitimate parliament of Tripoli.

Parliament of Tripoli condemned the attempt to kidnap MP Mohammed Morghem. The parliament asked executive bodies and justice system to make sure the perpetrators are held accountable for their actions.

Last Friday, former authorities in Tripoli announced they had regained its powers after taking the state council in Tripoli without any clashes.

PM of former government Khalifah Ghuweil called upon all ministers and bodies to perform their missions and jobs as usual, especially those that affect the daily life of the citizens.

Meanwhile, media center of the Solid Structure Operations announced that the terrorist organization ISIS in Sirte is living its last day. The media center added that the presence of civilians in the city is delaying the complete liberation of the city.

The center mentioned that eight Eritrean women surrendered themselves after the Libyan Air Force dropped fliers asking them to. The women were slaves bought and sold among the leaders of the organization.

The center also briefly explained that the forces are advancing in District 3 of the city where there are few ISIS terrorists.

Chaos began in Libyan following the revolution that ousted the late Libyan leader Mouammar al-Ghaddafi, while Sarraj government that was formed in March faces forces that do not declare its legitimacy including the parliament in the east of Libya.

aawsat.com

Tunisia has dismantled a extremist cell planning attacks including against security officials and a senior government official, a prosecution spokesman said.

“The cell was targeting security officials and a figure holding an important position within the government,” Sofiene Sliti said.

Twenty-nine of the 62 alleged militants were referred to trial under the country’s anti-terrorism law, Sliti said, while 20 others are on the run.

He said that seven other suspects were already behind bars for other offences while the last six members of the cell are awaiting trial. Tunisian media said the cell had planned to target Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub, but his ministry and Sliti refused to comment.

Tunisia has faced a rise in extremist attacks since the 2011 uprising that led to the overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Militant attacks in Tunisia have cost dozens of lives among security forces as well as civilians, and 59 foreign tourists were also killed in 2015.

Separately, Tunisia’s powerful UGTT labour union on Monday called on workers to mobilise against the government’s draft budget for 2017 which stipulates a public sector salary freeze.

The government on Friday approved a draft budget for next year that forecasts 2.5 per cent growth and a civil service pay freeze lasting at least a year.

The draft has yet to be approved by parliament. But the UGTT cried foul on Monday, saying in a statement that it “categorically rejects all the measures it had warned against… including postponing pay rises.”

gulftoday.ae/