offensive

A planned European Union statement calling on military strongman Khalifa Haftar to halt his Libyan National Army's offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli was vetoed by France, which has provided military assistance in past years to Haftar in his eastern stronghold.

The Israeli offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza, codenamed ‘Protective Edge’ in English and in which to date more than 750 Palestinians and 33 Israelis have lost their lives, deepened in horror on Thursday when at least 15 people were killed and 200 wounded in an attack upon a United Nations-run school used as a shelter from the fighting. While the gruesome toll has caused loud international outcry, less reported is the movement of desertion among Israeli military reservists who refuse what they believe is an unjust war. Mediapart's special correspondent in Israel, Pierre Puchot, has obtained a frank and exclusive interview with one of these so-called 'refuseniks', who this week fled his call-up to join an armoured division headed for Gaza.

French military says it is engaged alongside Malian and UN forces in a "large-scale" operation to prevent a resurgence of "terrorist movements".

Force of 1,000 soldiers has begun a sweep of a river valley thought to be a logistics base for armed Islamists near the Malian city of Gao.