Libya Crimes Watch (LCW) documented, on Friday, 8 May 2026, the killing of two (2) civilians, including a woman, and the injury of one (1) further woman in the city of Al-Zawiya, western Libya, following the impact of shells and shrapnel on residential properties and civilian infrastructure across several areas of the city. The casualties occurred in the context of armed clashes between the Security Threats Combating Apparatus, operating under the Prime Minister’s Office of the Government of National Unity (GNU), and other armed militias active in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW also monitored damage to additional civilian infrastructure across the city, including the oil refinery port, rendering some facilities non-operational. LCW further observed that parties to the clashes obstructed the evacuation of civilians and impeded the opening of safe corridors for ambulance and emergency response teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recurrence of armed clashes within residential neighbourhoods in Al-Zawiya, and the consequent exposure of civilians to harm, constitutes a clear and repeated violation of the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL), in particular the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautionary measures. The obstruction of civilian evacuation and the denial of access to ambulance services further constitute grave violations of the obligation to protect civilians and to facilitate access to medical and humanitarian assistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW holds the GNU fully legally responsible for the protection of civilians in areas under its control, and for violations committed by armed groups and security agencies affiliated with it or operating under its authority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW calls upon all parties to the clashes to implement an immediate ceasefire and to cease all military operations in populated areas and in the vicinity of civilian infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW further calls upon the authorities in western Libya to take immediate and effective measures to protect civilian lives and civilian infrastructure from the effects of armed clashes, and to ensure the opening of safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians and the access of ambulance and emergency response teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW calls upon the Libyan Attorney General to open an urgent and transparent investigation into these clashes and to bring those responsible to justice, with a view to ending impunity and ensuring the non-recurrence of such violations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Libya Crimes Watch (LCW) documented, on Friday, 8 May 2026, the killing of two (2) civilians, including a woman, and the injury of one (1) further woman in the city of Al-Zawiya, western Libya, following the impact of shells and shrapnel on residential properties and civilian infrastructure across several areas of the city. The casualties occurred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[654],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26315,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26312\/revisions\/26315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}