Palestinian forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank clashed on Tuesday with protesters opposed to Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, an AFP journalist said.
Palestinian forces in Ramallah fired tear gas at demonstrators who had gathered, calling for Abbas to step down, apparently over his conciliatory tone since war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began earlier this month.
The clashes came after the health ministry in Gaza, ruled by Hamas militants at war with Israel, said at least 200 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital where displaced people had sheltered in the coastal enclave.
“The people want the fall of the president,” demonstrators chanted in Ramallah.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, said Abbas was returning immediately “to the homeland”.
Abbas “calls for an emergency meeting of the leadership tonight,” Sheikh wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, is based in Ramallah and is split from the militant group Hamas.