Senior Hamas official slams Israeli raids, land seizure in West Bank
Mahmoud Mardawi says Israel’s “unprecedented” settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank is part of “a systematic policy” of seizing more Palestinian land, leading to Israel’s “dream of annexation and displacement”.
In a statement released on Hamas’s Telegram account, the official said the expansion coincides with an “unprecedented” military escalation in the West Bank, including raids, arrests, home demolitions, property confiscation and the imposition of a stifling siege on residential areas.
Mardawi said, “These crimes represent a fully-fledged apartheid policy aimed at emptying the land of its indigenous people in a flagrant violation of all international laws and agreements.”
More Israeli settler, military violence across West Bank today
Since the start of the war in Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank – including Israeli settler and military attacks, arrests and home demolitions – has sharply increased.
Here’s a quick look at some of what happened today, according to reports from the Palestinian news agency Wafa:
- Israeli forces carried out a wide-scale raid and detention campaign at dawn today in occupied East Jerusalem, targeting several members of Fatah, the dominant party in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
- Israeli authorities approved a plan to seize 35 dunums (8.6 acres) of land from the village of Kafr Qaddum, near the northwestern city of Qalqilya, to construct 58 new settlement units.
- In the same village, settlers from Kedumim uprooted about 50 ancient olive trees owned by Palestinian residents.
- Israeli settlers have also raided Palestinian-owned lands in an-Naqura and Deir Sharaf, villages northwest of Nablus, where they stole olive crops.
- Israeli soldiers have closed the metal gate at the entrance to the village of Atara, north of Ramallah, severely disrupting Palestinian traffic in the area.
- In a report, the Jerusalem Governorate said that, since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has killed at least 97 Palestinians and is still holding the bodies of 49 of them. Israeli soldiers have caused 591 injuries to Palestinians, including through the use of live and rubber-coated steel bullets and severe beatings. The report also mentioned 742 demolitions, most of which targeted Palestinian homes and structures.
