Hamas: Israel Implementing Annexation by Escalating Demolitions
“The escalation of house demolitions, the increase in settlement building, and the confiscation of lands, all these indicate a gradual implementation of the annexation plan,” said Hazem Qassem, Hamas’ spokesman, in a written statement on Saturday, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
He added that the best way to stand against Israel’s open war against Palestinians was establishing a unified national front against Tel Aviv based on a joint strategy of struggle.
The Hamas official also stressed that the Palestinian Authority, which rules the occupied West Bank, should implement the outcomes of a meeting of the secretaries-general of the Palestinian factions and to accelerate the activation of popular resistance.
Qassem added that the implementation of the US-formulated annexation plan was occurring under the cover of normalization agreements with some Arab regimes, referring to the US-brokered agreements between Israel and four Arab governments — namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco — since August.
He also warned that the much-condemned normalization agreements would encourage the Israeli occupying regime to escalate its aggression against the Palestinian people and undermine their cause, Press TV reported.
Earlier on Saturday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that Israeli authorities had demolished 52 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds within the previous two weeks.
It added that a total of 49 structures were demolished in the West Bank. Israeli forces also brought down three buildings in East Jerusalem al-Quds between November 24 and December 7, causing the displacement of 67 Palestinians and causing harm to around 860 others.
Separately, the European Union (EU) said that 200 Palestinian families were expected to be evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem al-Quds.
According to the statement, 14 families have already lost their homes in Batan al-Hawa neighborhood since 2015, and more than 80 other households are facing eviction demands and are at imminent risk of displacement.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Qassem said that Israel practiced racial discrimination against Palestinians in its “ugliest form” and in clear disregard for all human laws and norms.
“The Israeli occupation is implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing in the full view of the whole world,” the Hamas official further said.
Israel attempts to justify the demolition of Palestinian houses by claiming that they lack building permits, despite the fact that Israel does not provide such permits to Palestinians.
Furthermore, Israel orders Palestinians to demolish their own homes or pay the demolition price to the municipality if they refuse to tear down their houses. Palestinians and the international community consider the Israeli demolitions in the occupied territories illegal.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds and the West Bank during the six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
