Hamas slams Israeli plan to build new settlements
US ‘deeply troubled’ by approval of settler permits
The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s decision to construct thousands of new settler units in the occupied West Bank as “open aggression” on Palestinians despite international outcry.
The United States on Monday objected to the decision by Israel’s nationalist-religious cabinet to approve the construction of around 5,700 additional housing units for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The United States was “deeply troubled” by the move, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, adding that U.S. officials had made clear publicly and privately to Israel their opposition to moves that advance settlements, Reuters reported.
Most countries deem the settlements, built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as illegal. Their presence is one of the fundamental issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We believe that settlements are an impediment to a negotiated two-state solution,” said Miller.
‘Open aggression’
Also, Hamas, in a statement released on Monday, criticized the plan as “a new crime that amounts to open-ended aggression against the Palestinian nation,” Press TV reported.
“The Israeli decision adds up to the list of crimes that the occupying Tel Aviv regime is perpetrating across the West Bank,” it added.
“Such crimes push Palestinians to stand united in the face of Israeli crimes.”
Hamas further called on the Arab and Muslim nations, as well as freedom-loving people worldwide, to mobilize efforts to support the steadfastness of Palestinians until they fulfill their aspirations to return and establish an independent sovereign state.
The statement came hours after Israeli authorities approved the construction of 5,623 new illegal settler units in the West Bank, in continuation of its illegal settlement expansion and land grab activities in the occupied territories.
According to a report by the official Palestinian WAFA news agency, the approval of the construction of new illegal settler units includes depositing plans for the construction of 4,291 new colonial settler units, which constitutes an advanced stage of planning and construction by the occupation authorities.
The approval also includes 1,332 building plans which are submitted and will be approved after a session for hearing objections, before final approval and preparation of tenders, it added.
Israeli media outlets said 1,000 new settler units, more than what Israel’s far-right administration approved last week, will be built in Eli settlement, south of the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
The approval came after an agreement between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant, and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, the reports added.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Al-Quds.