Hamas warns against Israel’s creeping annexation project in occupied territories

GAZA, Oct. 31 (YPA) – The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Thursday condemned Israel’s decision to advance thousands of new settlement units across the occupied West Bank, calling it a serious escalation in what it described as an ongoing effort to annex and Judaize Palestinian land.

In a statement, Hamas said the approval by Israel’s Higher Planning Council to authorize 1,973 new housing units, just a day after greenlighting another 1,300 in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, represents “a dangerous surge in the occupation’s policy of Judaization and territorial fragmentation” aimed at severing Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings.

The Movement warned that these settlement expansions constitute a blatant violation of international law and multiple UN resolutions prohibiting the construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.

“The occupation government continues its creeping annexation project, deliberately ignoring international appeals to halt these illegal activities,” the statement said, urging the global community and its institutions to shoulder their moral and legal responsibilities in confronting Israel’s systematic land theft.

Hamas further condemned what it called the “international double standards” that enable Israel’s crimes to continue unchecked, asserting that such silence encourages the regime to expand its colonial project deeper into Palestinian land.

The Movement reaffirmed that the Palestinian people will remain steadfast in their struggle for national rights and will not allow Israel to alter the identity or geography of the West Bank through its apartheid policies.

@E.Y.M