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Palestinians Demand Arrest of Israeli Official Visiting Washington

A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)
A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)
    London, Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Palestinians Demand Arrest of Israeli Official Visiting Washington

A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)
A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday asked Washington to arrest a visiting Israeli official who called for wiping out the Palestinian village of Huwara.

“The Foreign Ministry demands the US administration to arrest the fascist terrorist Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy head of the Shomron Regional Council, who is currently in the United States and who made the original call to burn and wipe out Huwara (in Nablus),” the Ministry said in a statement published by the German news agency.

The ministry said that, “instead of asking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s disgusting and terrorist statements, the US administration should have arrested the original author of that call.”

The US State Department on Wednesday condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s statements in which he called for the Palestinian village of Huwara to be “wiped out.” The Department said the remarks were “repugnant, irresponsible and disgusting.”

Speaking at a business conference on Wednesday, Smotrich was asked why he ‘liked’ a tweet on Sunday evening posted by Ben Zion calling for the destruction of the village.

The minister said that he liked the tweet “because I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it.”

The call came just days after Israeli settlers attacked the occupied West Bank village.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh described Smotrich's statements as “terrorist and racist,” saying they constitute a dangerous threat against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.

Shtayyeh added that the Israeli minister's statements “are sufficient to bring him to international justice, considered to be an official incitement to commit new massacres against Palestinians.”

He then called on the UN, the EU and all international organizations to condemn the Israeli minister’s statements and to activate international resolutions that boycott Israel, hold it accountable for its “crimes” and not allow it to escape punishment.

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Arab World

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
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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.