Libya orders ambassadors of countries 'supporting' Israel to leave Tripoli

“Support” Israel? Leave Libya that’s what the Libyan parliament has told ambassadors from countries amid the Israel-Hamas war, taking specific aim at the US, Britain, France and Italy. In a statement published on its official website, the eastern-based parliament – backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in Libya split between two rival administrations – threatened to cut energy supplies if “massacres” against Palestinians did not stop. “We demand that the ambassadors of the states which support the Zionist entity (Israel) in its crimes leave the territory (of Libya) immediately,” the statement by the Libya parliament stated. “If the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy do not stop, we demand that the Libyan government suspend the export of oil and gas to the states that support it,” it read. Libya’s parliament has also denounced “in the strongest terms” the actions of “the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy”. It said these nations “support the Zionist entity in its crimes” in the Gaza Strip, while their leaders “lecture on human rights and the right of peoples to self-determination”. After the fall of Moamer Kadhafi in a popular uprising in 2011, Libya, riven by fratricidal violence and division, has been governed by two rival entities. The Tripoli-based government led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah is recognised by the United Nations, while authorities in Libya’s east are backed by Haftar, a veteran of the Kadhafi-era army. Libyans have rallied across the country in solidarity with Palestinians since the latest war broke out, particularly following a deadly hospital blast in Gaza on October 17 which Hamas has blamed on Israel. The Israeli military said the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket. On October 7, Hamas terrorists launched an attack on Israel killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians. Israel has since been bombarding Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that Israel’s strikes have killed more than 6,500 Palestinians, also mainly civilians. With inputs from AFP