Hamas Rejects UAE Claim of Israeli Halt to Annexation Plan
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem, in a statement, said the constant expansion of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has exposed the false claims of the Arab states.
These [UAE] claims [that normalization with Israel has stopped settlement construction] are meant to mislead the Arab public opinion and to cover up the normalization crime, he said, Press TV reported.
UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had claimed his country's deal with Israel forced Tel Aviv to scrap its annexation plan.
Pinpointing to recent reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Hamas spokesman said Israel has demolished more than 506 Palestinian buildings in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem al-Quds since the beginning of this year.
The OCHA has said there has been a sharp increase in the number of Palestinian houses being demolished by Israel in the occupied West Bank during the coronavirus pandemic.
Israel approved the construction of hundreds of settler units in the occupied West Bank after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from Washington following the signing of normalization agreements.
Last month, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed deals with the US mediation to normalize relations with Israel.
Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital, view the deals as betrayal of their cause.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has also protested the normalization deals with Israel, saying they will be fruitless as long as the United States and the Israeli regime do not recognize the rights of the Palestinian nation and refuse to resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Emboldened by Trump, Israel has stepped up its settlement construction activities in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”
Palestinian leaders, who severed all ties with Washington in late 2017 after US President Donald Trump controversially recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of the Israeli regime, immediately rejected the plan, with President Abbas saying it “belongs to the dustbin of history.”
