PA is negotiating with resistance fighters in Nablus to ‘sell their weapons’

Israel’s Channel 12 said that the PA had failed to negotiate with a group of resistance fighters in Nablus who call themselves the Lions’ Den, with the aim of disarming them.

The channel claimed that the PA offered to integrate the resistance fighters into the PA agencies, buy the weapons in their possession, and pay them salaries, but negotiations reached a dead end.

A well-informed Palestinian source from Nablus confirmed to Arabi21 that the PA held negotiations with a group of resistance fighters in order to convince them to “surrender and disarm” but that the resistance refused to do so.

Another source close to the resistance in the city of Jenin told Arabi21 that “the PA always offers to hire the resistance fighters and get them immunity from the occupation authorities in exchange for surrendering themselves and stopping their work, but they firmly refuse this.”

He added that the Lions’ Den group in Nablus rejected the PA’s offers.

Arabi21 could not get a comment from the security services spokesman.

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On Sunday, an Israeli soldier was wounded in a shooting near the entrance to the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, in the second operation of its kind near Nablus in 24 hours.

The Palestinian armed groups Lions’ Den claimed responsibility for the shooting.

It said in a statement the group said: “A while ago, the Lions’ Den groups fired a barrage of bullets at the settlers and the occupation soldiers accompanying them at the Awarta and Hawara checkpoints, and with God’s grace, we caused casualties in their ranks.”

The Lions’ Den are groups of Palestinian gunmen operating in and around the city of Nablus, and they include activists from various Palestinian factions.