The Israeli occupation's approval of plans to build 4,000 new illegal colonial settlement units in the occupied West Bank and demolish around 12 Palestinian villages in Yatta, south of Hebron, and displace thousands of their residents is a grave escalation and an appalling encroachment on the occupied Palestinian territories. 

These plans constitute ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands and property in order to perpetuate the occupation and settlement construction. 

We affirm that these crimes and policies against the Palestinian people and their lands and holy sites will neither grant the Israeli occupation any legitimacy nor bring it security in historic Palestine. 

These plans will not dissuade the Palestinian people from remaining committed to holding on to their lands and holy sites and defending them with all means possible until regaining their rights and achieving their aspirations for liberation, return, and an independent Palestinian state. 

The Israeli occupation's disregard for international laws and norms opposing settlement activity and demanding an end to it requires the international community to assume its historical responsibility by endorsing the Palestinian cause and ending the Israeli occupation, which poses a threat to the region, in addition to world peace and stability. 

Hamas Movement 
Saturday, 7 May 2022