The parliament established in eastern Libya yesterday demanded the “immediate” withdrawal of the ambassadors of countries that support Israel in the war it launched against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, referring by name to the US, Britain, France and Italy.

In a statement posted on its website yesterday, the institution, close to the camp of the powerful Marshal Khalifa Haftar, also demanded that the supply of Libyan hydrocarbons to these countries be suspended if the “massacres” of Palestinians do not stop.

“We demand the ambassadors of the states that support the Zionist entity (ie Israel) in the crimes it commits to leave the (Libyan) territory immediately,” said the parliamentary statement, which was released on the 19th day of the Israel-Hamas war. .

This war was triggered by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which left more than 1,400 dead, most of them civilians. The Israeli military’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip, an enclave ruled by Hamas, have so far left 6,500 dead, also mostly civilians.

“If the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy do not stop, we demand that the Libyan government suspend oil and gas exports to the states that support it,” the parliament added.

The Libyan parliament denounced “in the strongest possible way” the attitude of “the US, British, French and Italian governments”, which “support the Zionist entity and its crimes” while their leaders “lecture on human rights and the right of peoples to self-determination”.

Libya, which does not recognize Israel, has been plagued by violence and political strife since Muammar Gaddafi’s regime was toppled by a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

After all, there are two opposing executive powers in the country: the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU), which is based in Tripoli (west) and is recognized by the UN; and the so-called Libyan government, which was named by the parliament and is close to Khalifa Haftar’s camp , of the strong man of eastern Libya.

There have been repeated demonstrations of support for the Palestinians in Libyan cities, especially after the bloody attack on a hospital in Gaza on 17 October.