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Sudan’s Burhan Refers Senior Officer to Retirement

Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (AFP)
Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (AFP)
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Sudan’s Burhan Refers Senior Officer to Retirement

Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (AFP)
Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (AFP)

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of the Sudanese ruling Sovereign Council and army commander, referred on Saturday Major General Mohamed Alawi Koko to retirement after the latter joined the Rapid Support Forces.

Burhan also exempted Koko from the position of Chairman of the Joint Supervisory Committee for Abyei which is a disputed area between Sudan and South Sudan, according to the spokesman of the Armed Forces, Nabil Abdullah.

The RSF announced on Thursday that hundreds of honorable members of the armed forces under Major General Mohamed Alawi Koko sided with the people’s choice and responded to the call by Sudanese paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti.

Koko announced in a video published on the X platform defecting from the army and joining the RSF in order to support the Sudanese cause and establish democracy.

The RSF added in a statement that the forces in West Darfur received 236 individuals from the 15th Infantry Division in El Geneina in addition to 300 officers and individuals from the 10th Division Abu Jubayhah and 50 individuals from the police in South Kordofan.

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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.