However suspicions remain: there is no indication that the shared national grief over Derna will loosen the political gridlock that has gripped Libya for more than a year, making national elections impossible.

A humanitarian source involved in the relief effort said eastern authorities had barred foreign aid flowing to Derna through the internationally recognised Tripoli government, whose legitimacy the eastern administration rejects.

A source in the eastern administration denied this, saying it had not rejected aid being channelled via Tripoli.

Analysts caution that political leaders may be seeking to tap into a national mood of unity while positioning themselves to benefit from any longer-term development funds. Conflict in Libya has often focused on access to state finances.

“When you start to talk about the issues of reconstruction and financial support, this will aggravate all the faultlines in Libya,” Eaton said.

However, the long line of trucks queuing to get into Derna on Thursday showed donations arriving from around the country in what the United Nations emergency agency OCHA called “a wave of nationwide support” that “has swept across Libya”.

Relief operations in Derna have been directed by Haftar’s LNA, the military coalition that controls eastern Libya and was for years in open conflict with western factions.

Haftar mounted a 14-month campaign to capture the capital Tripoli from 2019-20, an offensive that destroyed swathes of the city and was resisted by western armed factions.

Photographs on social media, which Reuters could not immediately identify, appeared to show vehicles from Tripoli’s 444 Brigade, whose leader was part of the coalition battling Haftar, arriving with aid in eastern Libya late on Wednesday.

The internal coordination was matched by donations from abroad. Even foreign governments mistrustful of Haftar have put aside political misgivings or fears over Libya’s rampant corruption, to directly engage in a region he controls.

Turkey, long the main supporter of the Tripoli government, rapidly sent an aid team to Derna through Benghazi, the LNA-controlled capital of eastern regions.