Palestinian Authority security forces reportedly used force and made arrests to quell West Bank protests expressing solidarity with Gaza, drawing condemnation.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces used force on Monday to disperse a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza near Al-Manara Square in Ramallah, according to eyewitness accounts. Several protesters were arrested.
The incident followed a widespread general strike across the West Bank on Monday. Marches were organized in response to calls from Palestinian political groups and activists to protest the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and the continued aggression against Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank. However, these demonstrations faced what Al-Jazeera reported as violent crackdowns and arrests by members of the PA’s security apparatus.
The Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, issued a statement on Tuesday morning condemning the PA security forces’ arrest of participants in the West Bank demonstrations supporting Gaza.
The West Bank is on total general strike in support of Gaza and demanding the end of the Israeli #Genocide. pic.twitter.com/vdmnO6VW86
— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) April 7, 2025
The movement stated that “the arrest campaign carried out by the PA security apparatus against our people in the West Bank following their participation in marches and activities in support of Gaza is a dangerous indicator and a behavior that serves the goals of the Israeli occupation and constitutes a new stab in the back of our people and our cause, which is going through its most dangerous stages.”
The Islamic Jihad also commented on what it termed the “sensitive period” the Palestinian issue is undergoing, emphasizing that it “requires the unification of all efforts to stop the displacement of our people from Gaza and the West Bank.”
Ismail al-Sindawi, the head of National Relations for the Islamic Jihad, said that “the widespread response of our people in the West Bank to the global strike day in condemnation of the genocidal war and the cold-blooded killing of paramedics, and the Palestinian security forces’ suppression of demonstrators and arrests, are unpatriotic acts.”
He added that “the Authority must play a role in supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza through popular action and sending convoys to Gaza.”
Political analyst Mohammed Ghazi al-Jamal said that the PA “seems to have long decided to align itself with fulfilling a security role regardless of the political horizon or the existence of a national justification for this matter, which negatively impacts its legitimacy and popular support, as shown by numerous opinion polls that give it a very low degree of popularity in the West Bank and beyond.”
Al-Jamal added that as the Israeli right-wing continues to raze West Bank camps and displace their residents, the PA is gradually joining the Israeli security system, seeking protection and political cover as long as it is acceptable to the extreme nationalist and religious right in Israel.
Ibrahim al-Madhoun, director of the Femed Media Foundation, echoed concerns about the security coordination between the PA and the Israeli occupation, stating that it occurs within a close and systematic framework. He indicated that some operations are carried out at the direct request of the occupation, and some arrests are specific and tactical in nature.
Al-Madhoun said that “there is an implicit agreement between the Palestinian and Israeli security services to maintain a state of calm in the West Bank and to ensure that no interaction or public sympathy with the Gaza Strip occurs. Therefore, any activities supporting Gaza are preemptively thwarted, and anyone who shows a pro-resistance or solidarity stance there is pursued and arrested.”
(AJA, PC)
