Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces and factions in Nablus agreed to a truce on Wednesday to end clashes in the flashpoint West Bank city, the Associated Press reported, quoting local officials.
A committee of Palestinian factions and other prominent figures said that under the agreement, PA security forces would cease to arrest Palestinians wanted by the Israeli occupation in the city, “unless they broke Palestinian law,” according to the report.
Palestinian Authority would also discuss the release of one of the men arrested in the recent raid. They would also release Palestinians detained in Tuesday’s clashes, “unless they’d damaged property or looted.”
A semblance of normal life returned on Wednesday to Nablus, known as the West Bank’s business capital, AP reported, adding that PA security forces were deployed in armored vehicles in the city center.
The clashes erupted in the early hours of Tuesday after an arrest raid by PA security forces against Mussaab Shtayyeh and Amid Tabila. PA security forces exchanged fire with angry crowds who protested the arrest. One bystander was reportedly martyred.
Shtayyeh is said to have been closely associated with Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, who was martyred in a heroic three-hour confrontation with Israeli occupation forces in Nablus last month following months of being at large. Nablusi was popular in Nablus and the entire West Bank over his prominent role in resistance activities in the city.
Shtayyeh was part of an armed squad called the Nablus Battalion or Nablus Lions, a group known of involvement in recent shooting attacks against Israeli occupation forces and Zionist settlers at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.
Source: Agencies
