Palestinian Presidency Urges ‘Calm’ after Armed, Popular Clashes in Nablus

A side of the clashes in Nablus (AP)
A side of the clashes in Nablus (AP)
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Palestinian Presidency Urges ‘Calm’ after Armed, Popular Clashes in Nablus

A side of the clashes in Nablus (AP)
A side of the clashes in Nablus (AP)

The Palestinian presidency on Wednesday has urged Palestinians to maintain “calm” after violent confrontations having erupted between angry gunmen and security forces in the city of Nablus north of the West Bank.

Prior to the breakout of violence, the angry gunmen were protesting the arrest of wanted armed individuals being pursued by Israel.

Presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh urged calm in Nablus in order not to give way to those conspiring against the national Palestinian project.

Abu Rudeineh also called for “confronting the conspiracies of the occupation and some regional countries that want to harm the Palestinian national project.”

According to Abu Rudeineh, the presidency called on Palestinians “to unite at this dangerous stage that their national cause is going through.”

The spokesperson also warned against Palestinians being drawn behind malicious agendas and reaffirmed that spilling Palestinian blood was unacceptable.

“We affirm the sanctity of Palestinian blood, the need to maintain order and security in the Palestinian street, and to display a spirit of responsibility,” noted Abu Rudeineh, stressing that the main battle is with the Israeli occupation.

The appeal for calm to prevail came during unprecedented confrontations in Nablus, where clashes continued throughout Monday and Tuesday night.

The altercations took two forms. Shooting confrontations took place between armed Palestinian organizations and members of the security services on one side, and popular confrontations, during which angry youths blocked roads and threw stones and bottles at the Palestinian security forces.

Clashes and widespread confrontations erupted after Palestinian Authority security forces arrested two individuals wanted by the Israelis, Musab Shtayyeh and Ameed Tabila.

Shatayyeh and Tabila were arrested in a tight ambush in Nablus.

The arrest of Shtayyeh, who is a Hamas operative, came amid a wave of Israeli operations against militants in the West Bank, concentrated largely in the cities of Jenin and Nablus.

The Israeli operations have been met by many confrontations and clashes over the past few weeks.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.