Hamas official: 'Land grab part of Israel’s ethnic cleansing policy'
A senior Hamas official has warned about the escalation of Israel’s land confiscations across the occupied West Bank, saying it is an extension of the regime’s ethnic cleansing policy.
Abdul Rahman Shadid said on Wednesday that such measures prove that the regime is determined to pursue its systematic land grab policies and implement its broader annexation and displacement plan.
The Hamas official said Israel’s decision to confiscate more Palestinian land in the village of Al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah, is part of the regime’s comprehensive settlement plan, which seeks to isolate Palestinian villages from their surroundings.
He pointed out that this plan relies on confiscating agricultural land, constructing settlement roads, and expanding surrounding settlement outposts, which threatens the livelihoods of residents, undermines their resilience, and turns the land into a tool of pressure and extortion.
Shadid emphasized that Israel’s land confiscation is an extension of the regime’s ethnic cleansing policy, which is aimed at displacing the original inhabitants of the West Bank.
He said the measure is also meant to pave the way for further settlement expansion, and amounts to a full-fledged war crime.
Shadid called on the international community and organizations to take immediate steps to stop Israel’s settlement plans, urging them to move beyond mere statements of concern and perfunctory condemnations.
He also urged the Palestinian people to strengthen their steadfastness and unite in a unified national effort to support the struggle for resilience, activate all forms of resistance against the occupation, and thwart its settlement projects.
Israel has recently approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the number of settlements legalized or approved over the past three years to sixty-nine.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Violence has surged across the region since the regime's genocidal war began against the people of Gaza in October 2023.
In the last two years, nearly 1,102 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, and nearly 11,000 others have been injured in attacks by the Israeli military and settlers.
Around 21,000 people have also been abducted by the occupying regime’s forces.
Rights organizations have been warning that Palestinians in the West Bank face a growing threat of ethnic cleansing amid the continuing violence.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s prolonged occupation of historic Palestine was unlawful and called for the removal of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.
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