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Family of Dead Activist to Take Palestinian Authority to ICC

Palestinians, in this August 2021 photograph, hold posters of Nizar Banat, who died in Palestinian custody. ABBAS MOMANI / AFP
Palestinians, in this August 2021 photograph, hold posters of Nizar Banat, who died in Palestinian custody. ABBAS MOMANI / AFP
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Family of Dead Activist to Take Palestinian Authority to ICC

Palestinians, in this August 2021 photograph, hold posters of Nizar Banat, who died in Palestinian custody. ABBAS MOMANI / AFP
Palestinians, in this August 2021 photograph, hold posters of Nizar Banat, who died in Palestinian custody. ABBAS MOMANI / AFP

The family of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat will submit a case Thursday to the International Criminal Court accusing top Palestinian officials over his death in custody, relatives told AFP.

Banat, a leading critic of the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmud Abbas, died in June 2021 after being dragged from his home in the occupied West Bank by security forces.

A post-mortem found he had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, with less than an hour elapsing between his arrest and his death.

"We demand justice for a man who was doing nothing but speaking the truth to power," said the family's lawyer Hakan Camuz.

Any person or group can file a complaint to The Hague-based ICC prosecutor for investigation, but the court is not obliged to take them on.

The case to be lodged at ICC accuses seven Palestinian officials of responsibility for Banat's death.

The decision to take the case to the ICC comes after 14 members of the Palestinian security forces were released on bail, pending their military trial in the West Bank over Banat's death.

The activist's brother, Ghassan Banat, said their release earlier this year left him believing "there is no justice enforcement."

"At that time, we understood that the regime of the Palestinian Authority, the police, the security officers, have more authority than the court, that they were above the court," he said.

"That is why we have decided to move on to the international arena".

- Palestinians suspect officials -
The move marks the first time a Palestinian will lodge a complaint at the ICC against another Palestinian, according to the family's lawyer.

Banat's death sparked rare protests in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, with demonstrators shouting "Justice for Nizar" and pressing Abbas to quit.

A poll last year by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 63 percent of Palestinians believe Banat's death was "a deliberate measure ordered by the PA political or security leaders".

The dissident's brother said he was killed when he "challenged Mahmud Abbas and was telling people the truth about the real situation of the Palestinian Authority".

Abbas has held office since 2005 and last year cancelled long-delayed elections.

The step by the Banat family follows the Al Jazeera broadcaster taking a case to the ICC last week over its slain reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, arguing she was deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh was killed in May while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel is not an ICC member and disputes the court's jurisdiction.

More broadly, the court's chief prosecutor announced last year that she has opened a full investigation into the situation in the Palestinian territories.

The probe will focus on the actions of all parties in the 2014 Gaza war, as well as other incidents such as the killing by Israeli forces of protesters in the coastal Palestinian territory.

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Arab World

Holdouts Flee Lebanon Border Village After Israeli Warning

An Israeli tank maneuvers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli tank maneuvers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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Holdouts Flee Lebanon Border Village After Israeli Warning

An Israeli tank maneuvers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli tank maneuvers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The last residents of a Christian village on Lebanon's border with Israel fled the area on Tuesday, a UN source and an AFP correspondent said, after locals had for days defied an Israeli order to leave.

Fighting flared last week between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as part of a wider regional war, prompting the Israeli military to warn people across swathes of southern Lebanon to flee.

But some residents in Christian towns and villages refused to join a mass exodus, with dozens in the Alma al-Shaab area staying put despite the violence.

Fears spiked however after an Israeli strike at the weekend killed one resident.

On Tuesday, an AFP correspondent in the nearby Naqura area saw a convoy of vehicles transporting people who had left Alma al-Shaab, including women, children and the elderly. Their cars were packed with belongings, some strapped to the roofs.

Vehicles from Lebanon's United Nations peacekeeping force accompanied the convoy to a Lebanese army checkpoint further north, the correspondent said.

A source from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told AFP that more than 80 people had left and the village was now empty, saying they had been transported to areas outside the force's operations.

UNIFIL had said on Monday that "at the request of the municipality" of Alma al-Shaab, it was "ready to facilitate the safe movement of civilians who wish to leave".

Last week, local mayor Shadi Sayah had told AFP that "it is our right to preserve and remain on our land".

"We are pacifists... a danger to no one," the mayor said.

The Israeli army announced last week its intention to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, saying the goal was to protect residents of northern Israel from Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The Lebanese army, which had maintained a post in Alma al-Shaab, withdrew last Tuesday as Israeli forces started incursions into the country.

Many towns and villages along Lebanon's border have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023, when hostilities erupted between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza war, but some predominantly Christian villages have gone relatively unscathed.

Farther east in the village of Qlayaa, a parish priest died on Monday of wounds sustained from Israeli tank fire, sparking anger and fear.

Qlayaa mayor Hanna Daher has urged Lebanese authorities to prevent any armed presence in or around the town, referring to Hezbollah.

 

 

 

 

Arab World

Lives Being Upended on Massive Scale in Lebanon, Says UN Refugee Agency

A boy looks on while lying under a blanket alongside family belongings in a makeshift encampment along the waterfront in Beirut on March 10, 2026, as civilians who fled the city's southern suburbs due to Israeli bombardment remain displaced. (AFP)
A boy looks on while lying under a blanket alongside family belongings in a makeshift encampment along the waterfront in Beirut on March 10, 2026, as civilians who fled the city's southern suburbs due to Israeli bombardment remain displaced. (AFP)
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Lives Being Upended on Massive Scale in Lebanon, Says UN Refugee Agency

A boy looks on while lying under a blanket alongside family belongings in a makeshift encampment along the waterfront in Beirut on March 10, 2026, as civilians who fled the city's southern suburbs due to Israeli bombardment remain displaced. (AFP)
A boy looks on while lying under a blanket alongside family belongings in a makeshift encampment along the waterfront in Beirut on March 10, 2026, as civilians who fled the city's southern suburbs due to Israeli bombardment remain displaced. (AFP)

‌Lives have been upended on a massive scale in Lebanon amid a wider conflict in the Middle East, with more than 667,000 people now registered as displaced within the country - an increase of ‌100,000 in ‌just one day - the ‌UN ⁠refugee agency said ⁠on Tuesday.

Lebanon was dragged into the US-Israeli war on Iran this month when Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets ⁠and drones into Israel, which ‌has ‌responded with heavy bombardment across the ‌country.

Some 120,000 people are ‌staying in government designated shelters, while others are still looking for somewhere to stay, the ‌UNHCR said, citing government figures.

"Many others are ⁠staying ⁠with relatives or friends or still searching for accommodation, and we see cars lined along the street with people sleeping in them and also on the sidewalks," said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR representative in Lebanon.

Arab World

Syrian Interior Ministry Airs Confessions of ‘Saraya al-Jawad’ Members

The February operation targeted hideouts in the villages of Beit Alouni and Basniya in Latakia province. (SANA)
The February operation targeted hideouts in the villages of Beit Alouni and Basniya in Latakia province. (SANA)
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Syrian Interior Ministry Airs Confessions of ‘Saraya al-Jawad’ Members

The February operation targeted hideouts in the villages of Beit Alouni and Basniya in Latakia province. (SANA)
The February operation targeted hideouts in the villages of Beit Alouni and Basniya in Latakia province. (SANA)

The Syrian Interior Ministry released a video showing confessions from members of the "Saraya al-Jawad" armed group, nearly two weeks after announcing a raid on one of its main strongholds in the countryside of Jableh in the Latakia province.

According to the ministry, the February 23 operation targeted hideouts in the villages of Beit Alouni and Basniya in Latakia province. The raid killed the group’s coastal leader Bashar Abdullah Abu Ruqayya and two other commanders, and led to the arrest of six members.

The video released Monday includes footage from the twin operation carried out by the Interior Ministry’s Internal Security Directorate.

Authorities said the raid followed several days of surveillance and resulted in the destruction of a weapons depot and explosives storage site belonging to the group.

One member of the Syrian special task forces was killed and another was lightly wounded during the operation.

In the recorded confessions, detainees said they took part in attacks along the Syrian coast in March 2025. One suspect admitted to ambushing a General Security patrol and killing one officer during a clash.

The confessions also described the establishment of an operations room in a residential house that doubled as an arms depot. According to the detainees, the group received financial support from businessmen Ayman Jaber and Mohammad Jaber, while supplies were smuggled in from Lebanon.

Mohammad Jaber, a businessman close to the former government of Bashar al-Assad and a commander in the Desert Hawks militia founded by his brother Ayman, previously appeared in a television interview acknowledging his role in organizing attacks by pro-regime remnants along the Syrian coast on March 6, 2025.

Documents and recordings obtained by Al Jazeera’s investigative program Al-Mutahari suggested that senior figures linked to the former government sought to form armed groups to carry out attacks on Syrian security forces and the army.

The Interior Ministry said it is pursuing members of those networks and attempting to curb their activities.

Saraya al-Jawad has been active in Syria’s coastal region — particularly in Latakia, Jableh and Tartus — since August 2025, when activists circulated a video showing a car bomb targeting a General Security vehicle in rural Jableh.

Earlier this month, security forces in Tartus also arrested three suspects — Ali Zuhair Idris, Ammar Madin Youssef and Mousa Mazhar Mia — accused of planning attacks targeting the province’s security and civilians.

Officials said intelligence showed the group had received explosives training abroad before infiltrating back into Syria.