Israeli displacement policy in occupied al-Quds poses existential threat to Palestinians: Hamas

The Hamas resistance movement says a decision by the Israeli occupying regime to expropriate dozens of residential buildings in the vicinity of al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of al-Quds is a dangerous step that directly targets the Palestinian existence.

In a statement released on Monday, Hamas described the move "as part of a comprehensive plan to Judaize the city, seize its properties, and alter its demographic reality."

The resistance group warned that these Judaization decisions aimed at "uprooting Palestinians from their city, altering the identity of al-Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque, and emptying the Old City of its residents.”

"The policies of expropriation and displacement will not succeed in breaking the will of our people or taking away al-Quds from its Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic identity; rather, they will only increase the steadfastness and resilience of the Jerusalemites, no matter how much the occupation escalates its crimes," the statement read.

The Palestinian group called for mass mobilization of Palestinians and resorting to all "means of resistance and confrontation against the colonial-settlement projects, and reinforcing presence in the Old City and in the vicinity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Elsewhere in the statement, Hams urged the Arab and Islamic world, as well as international and rights organizations, to "take urgent action and exert pressure on the occupation by all means to stop the Zionist crimes of murder, settlement, Judaization, and forced displacement targeting our people and land."

The statement comes after the Israeli regime advanced plans to confiscate Palestinian-owned property near al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds’ Old City.

On Sunday, Israeli ministers approved the creation of an inter-ministerial team to examine the implementation of expropriation orders in the area around Chain Gate, a main route leading directly to al-Aqsa Mosque.

The narrow stone route leads to the western gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque and is lined with historic Islamic schools, centuries-old buildings, shops, and small restaurants.

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, said that many of the targeted buildings are linked to Islamic waqf properties and historic institutions surrounding the mosque complex.

Israeli authorities also presented the decision as completing the occupying entity's ownership over properties confiscated after Israel’s 1967 occupation of East al-Quds.

The orders could affect dozens of Palestinian-owned homes and shops.

The developments come as Israeli forces are pressing ahead with a campaign of demolition and forced displacement of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.

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