Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Man in West Bank

A Palestinian hurls stones towards Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 14 May 2023. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
A Palestinian hurls stones towards Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 14 May 2023. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
TT

Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Man in West Bank

A Palestinian hurls stones towards Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 14 May 2023. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
A Palestinian hurls stones towards Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, 14 May 2023. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man during a raid in the city of Nablus early on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest incident in more than a year of surging violence in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said suspects hurled rocks and explosives and fired at its forces in Nablus, a flashpoint city where there have been regular raids and clashes. The soldiers shot at the suspects and "a hit was identified", the military said.

It added that the forces were in Nablus to prepare for the possible demolition of the home of a Palestinian suspected of killing two brothers from a Jewish settlement near the village of Huwara on Feb. 26.

The attack prompted a settler rampage in Huwara, during which a Palestinian man was killed and cars and homes were set alight while people were inside, Reuters reported.
The raid, near a refugee camp in a part of the West Bank where Palestinians exercise limited self-rule, sparked "intense confrontations" with Palestinian fighters, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

The Nablus raid came after an Egyptian-mediated truce ended five days of fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza last week, in which 34 Palestinians and an Israeli were killed.

Israel-Palestinian violence has been intensifying for months, with frequent Israeli military raids and settler violence in the West Bank amid a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.



Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
TT

Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.