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8 Killed, 17 Wounded During Protests in Sudan's Kassala

Internally displaced Sudanese children gesture to the photographer as they play outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
Internally displaced Sudanese children gesture to the photographer as they play outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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8 Killed, 17 Wounded During Protests in Sudan's Kassala

Internally displaced Sudanese children gesture to the photographer as they play outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
Internally displaced Sudanese children gesture to the photographer as they play outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

The Sudanese government announced Thursday that eight people were killed during violent protests in eastern Sudan's Kassala State on Thursday.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, medical sources in the city confirmed the number of causalities and said that seven out of those wounded are in a critical condition.

Protests broke out in Kassala against the recent decision by Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to sack the state's civilian governor Saleh Ammar.

However, Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council in Sudan Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said that governors of all states will be sacked to form a new government as agreed in the deal signed between the transitional government and the armed forces.

For his part, Ammar held the police and the transitional authority responsible for the violence, accusing them of suppressing the right to freedom of expression.

"The government remained silent despite the chaos and racist attacks that happened throughout the past months – the government stood idle," he noted.

In this context, local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the authorities permitted the protest in the Freedom Square but the protesters headed towards the government’s headquarters.

Eyewitnesses said that the police shot live bullets at protesters.

Also, State news agency (SUNA) said security forces had used tear gas then bullets against a breakaway group of protesters, some of them armed, who had ignored warnings not to approach a government building.

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Arab World

Israel Sends More Troops to West Bank Village Besieged by Jewish Settlers

Israeli soldiers observe Palestinians during a raid in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, West Bank, 13 August 2026. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers observe Palestinians during a raid in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, West Bank, 13 August 2026. (EPA)
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Israel Sends More Troops to West Bank Village Besieged by Jewish Settlers

Israeli soldiers observe Palestinians during a raid in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, West Bank, 13 August 2026. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers observe Palestinians during a raid in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, West Bank, 13 August 2026. (EPA)

Israel's military said on Thursday it had sent more troops to a West Bank village where settlers have trapped Palestinian families inside their homes, a siege the Palestinians say is aimed at forcibly displacing them from their land.

The siege began at the weekend when Jewish settlers closed off the road to the three homes in the Palestinian village of Qusra and set up a tent in their front yards, refusing to allow anyone to enter or leave. The settlers had earlier cut off their electricity and water.

Israel's military says it is trying to disperse ‌the settlers from the ‌area, even as a video from earlier in the ‌week ⁠showed several Israeli men ⁠in green military garb joining the settlers in a morning prayer in the tent. The military said it was taking disciplinary action against any personnel involved.

A day after troops deployed tear gas in a failed attempt to remove the settlers, the military said it had sent additional troops to Qusra "to carry out defensive missions and patrols in the area to maintain security and protect the area."

The United Nations said in a statement that some 15 Palestinians ⁠including two children were "being trapped inside their homes in a state ‌of terror, unable to attend to their basic needs ‌and without access to water or electricity."

BESIEGED FAMILIES APPEAL FOR HELP

The military has come ‌under increasing pressure to halt rogue land seizures by settlers emboldened by the right-wing government ‌of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has spearheaded a rapid expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The two families under siege in the area say they have no food or medicine, and that the settlers have been damaging their property, throwing stones at their homes and shouting insulting language ‌at them.

"We appeal to government institutions and to every free and honorable person to help us secure food and medicine," ⁠said Qusay Abu Reeda, ⁠a Palestinian-American who is trapped with his family inside one of the homes.

The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said the Israeli military and police "have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this," adding: "The actions of those doing this to this family's home is criminal."

Palestinians say the Israeli military allows settlers to seize land and resources across the West Bank with impunity, including in areas where they hold Israel-issued ownership documents.

Incidents of settler land seizures are especially common in areas on the outskirts of villages, like Qusra, which sits in an area under complete Israeli security control.

The West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, is home to some three million Palestinians and 500,000 settlers. There are some 146 settlements in the West Bank, as well as 390 smaller outposts, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now.

Arab World

RSF Drones Attack Sudan Capital for Second Day

People clear debris from a mosque that residents said was damaged in a drone strike in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)
People clear debris from a mosque that residents said was damaged in a drone strike in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)
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RSF Drones Attack Sudan Capital for Second Day

People clear debris from a mosque that residents said was damaged in a drone strike in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)
People clear debris from a mosque that residents said was damaged in a drone strike in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)

Paramilitary drones on Thursday attacked the Sudanese capital Khartoum for the second day in a row, an AFP correspondent and witnesses reported.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been ravaged by war between the Sudanese military, led by its chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The latest attack comes a day after the RSF launched far-reaching coordinated drone strikes targeting five army-controlled cities hundreds of kilometers apart.

On Thursday, an AFP correspondent in the capital reported the firing of anti-aircraft missiles from Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, followed by the sound of an explosion.

"Military air defenses engaged with the militia's drones and downed them," an army source told AFP.

Witnesses in central Khartoum and Khartoum North across the Nile river also reported seeing drones in the sky and hearing explosions.

Across the country, aid workers estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed in what the UN calls a "war of atrocities". The conflict has also caused the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Burhan and Daglo, allies until they fell out in a bitter power struggle, have spent most of the war in a relative stalemate, unwilling to hold negotiations while vying for a decisive battlefield advantage.

The RSF last year consolidated its hold on the vast western region of Darfur and has since pushed to seize territory in the southern Kordofan region and along the southeastern Ethiopian border.

The army holds Sudan's center, north and east, and last month clinched a victory in Kordofan by pushing the RSF off a key highway leading to the capital.

Daglo in the aftermath said he would "unleash" his fighters -- already accused of war crimes including genocide -- and his forces have since repeatedly threatened a large-scale retaliatory attack.

Arab World

US Ambassador to Israel Denounces Settler Siege on Palestinians as ‘Terror’

Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)
Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)
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US Ambassador to Israel Denounces Settler Siege on Palestinians as ‘Terror’

Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)
Israeli soldiers stand guard next to settlers in front of Palestinian homes that they have blockaded in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP)

The US ambassador to Israel, a staunch supporter of West Bank settlements, on Thursday denounced as "terror" a siege by settlers against Palestinians that drew an unsuccessful intervention by the army.

Settlers near Nablus since Sunday have blockaded Palestinian homes, including one owned by a US citizen, with residents saying they have been cut off from food and other supplies.

"Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting," Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador in Jerusalem, wrote on X in response to criticism of the US response.

"No excuse for such thuggish behavior," he wrote.

Huckabee said Israel had intervened at the request of the United States, its crucial ally.

The remarks are especially striking from Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor who in the past has embraced Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and rejected the idea of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli military on Wednesday sent in forces who took away a tent, but witnesses said settlers defiantly remained at the site with blankets.

The army announced later Wednesday that it would send a new battalion to try to impose order.

Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians in the territory.