ISTANBUL: Outlawed Kurdish group PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm “immediately,” a Turkish defense ministry source said on Thursday, apparently referring to Kurdish forces in Syria. “The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons,” the source said. Last week, PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his militant group to dissolve and his fighters to lay down their arms in a historic call. The 75-year-old founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been jailed since 1999. The PKK, which has engaged in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in which tens of thousands of people have died, declared a ceasefire on Saturday and said it would comply with Ocalan’s call. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has backed the peace move, was quick to warn that if the promises weren’t kept, the military would continue its anti-PKK operations. “We always keep our iron fist ready in case the hand we extend is left hanging in the air or bitten,” he said on Saturday. Since January 1, 478 “terrorists” have been “neutralized” in anti-PKK military operations, the source said, of which 195 were in Iraq and 283 in Syria.

JENIN: Palestinian militants said on Monday that an unusual deployment of Israeli tanks in the occupied West Bank, part of a major offensive that has displaced tens of thousands, may be a step toward annexation. The torn-up streets surrounding the Jenin refugee camp in the territory’s north were empty on Monday, an AFP journalist reported, as three Israeli Merkava tanks stationed at higher vantage points overlooked the area. Displaced camp residents occasionally entered through a back alley to retrieve belongings from their homes. “We go back in to get things, whatever we can. We take the risk because we have to,” said 52-year-old Ahmad Al-Qahrawi. “We had nothing when we left, no clothes, nothing. We go back to get clothes because it’s cold.” Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to annex at least parts of the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967, but any such proposal has been met with strong opposition from Palestinians and much of the international community. In a weeks-long military operation in the north of the territory, launched around the time a truce took hold in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces looking for militants have cleared three refugee camps and deployed tanks in Jenin. Militant group Islamic Jihad said that the mass evacuations and first deployment of Israeli tanks in the territory since the early 2000s “confirms the occupation’s plans to annex the West Bank by force.” The group, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza and has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, denounced “a new act of aggression” which it said was “aimed at uprooting our people from their land.” The International Committee of the Red Cross said many residents who fled have taken shelter in “crowded mosques and schools.” The damage has hampered displaced residents’ “access to basic needs such as clean water, food, medical care and shelter,” and the winter cold “has made it more difficult to survive,” it added in a statement. "Lethal war-like tactics" The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA said the military offensive “appears to exceed law enforcement standards” and has had severe consequences. “The continued use of lethal war-like tactics in residential areas is extremely concerning,” OCHA said. Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settler attacks have killed at least 900 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 32 Israelis over the same period, according to official figures. UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday rejected “calls for annexation” and said he was “gravely concerned by the rising violence.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “we are closely watching developments, and cannot hide our concern when it comes to the West Bank.” Israel said on Sunday that its troops would remain for many months in the evacuated refugee camps in the northern West Bank — Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams — aiming to “prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism,” according to Defense Minister Israel Katz. He put the number of displaced Palestinians at 40,000, the same figure provided by the United Nations which said the offensive has killed at least 51 Palestinians including seven children, and three Israeli soldiers. Islamic Jihad accused Israel of attempting to consolidate “military domination by creating settler corridors that reinforce the separation of West Bank cities and their camps.” The West Bank, excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, is home to around three million Palestinian as well as nearly half a million Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law. Israeli tanks have not operated there since the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or “uprising,” in 2005.

JUBA: South Sudan’s peacebuilding minister was arrested on Thursday, the latest in a series of detentions targeting leaders allied with First Vice President Riek Machar. “The National Security Service (NSS) has struck again, arresting Hon. Stephen Par Kuol, Minister of Peacebuilding and Secretary General of the National Transitional Committee (NTC), from his office a few minutes ago,” Machar’s press secretary Puok Both Baluang wrote on Facebook. Kuol’s arrest follows that of the oil minister and deputy head of the army, also allies of Machar and senior members of his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) party, in the last two days. The arrests have raised concerns about destabilising the fragile peace agreement between President Salva Kiir and Machar. South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended a five-year civil war in 2018 with a power-sharing agreement between the two bitter rivals. Growing tensions have threatened to undo their unity government, particularly violent clashes in the northeastern Upper Nile State, where the government says there are ongoing clashes between the army and rebels backed by Machar’s forces. The United Nations has warned of increasing clashes in Upper Nile State involving the use of “heavy weaponry” and multiple deaths. Regional countries and Western embassies issued joint statements on Wednesday, calling for fighting to end. “Juba-based leaders must demonstrate their commitment to peaceful dialogue and should put the interest of the South Sudanese people first,” said the embassies, which included the United States, Britain and the European Union. There has also been criticism of political moves by Kiir, described by analysts as attempts to consolidate his position and sideline Machar. Last month, Kiir fired two of the five vice presidents in his unity government without consulting other stakeholders, and removed the governor of Western Equatoria State, a member of Machar’s movement.