Afrasianet - Marches took place across the occupied West Bank on Saturday evening in support of Gaza and to denounce the policy of starvation and the ongoing Israeli aggression on the besieged enclave, a number of which were met with repression by the Palestinian Authority security services.
These demonstrations came after popular calls for demonstrations from mosques and central squares after sunset prayers throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem and the occupied interior, in support of Gaza.
Local Palestinian platforms reported demonstrations in several cities and towns, including Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin.
During a demonstration in Ramallah, demonstrators chanted slogans including "O our conquest, our pride," and in Nablus, "From Nablus, a greeting, our proud mystery."
Videos on social media showed PA security services arresting a number of activists and suppressing a pro-Gaza demonstration in central Ramallah.
PA security services also dispersed and prevented a demonstration in support of Gaza at the Shuhada Roundabout in downtown Nablus, forcing activists to march and demonstrate inside the Old City.
Arbitrary arrests
Ramallah-based independent rights group Lawyers for Justice "strongly" condemned the Palestinian security services' repression of these peaceful demonstrations, saying it constituted a "flagrant violation of the Palestinian Basic Law and international conventions."
In a statement, she stressed that the use of excessive force against unarmed citizens and the prosecution of activists flouts the principles of human rights, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
It also denounced the "arbitrary arrests" that included a number of participants in the demonstrations, stressing that this step aims to muzzle voices and deter any peaceful popular movement calling for an end to the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip.
She called on local and international institutions and UN human rights committees to press for an end to the war of extermination in Gaza and to "hold accountable members of the security services involved in the assault on peaceful demonstrators and activists and arbitrarily arrest them."
It is noteworthy that since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders by the International Court of Justice to stop it.
The genocide, with American support, left more than 199,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and famine that claimed many lives.