UPDATE - Hamas condemns Israel for seizing land in occupied West Bank

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT OF PALESTINIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT

By Rasa Evrensel

ISTANBUL (AA) - Hamas on Friday condemned the Israeli seizure of 24,000 dunams (5,930 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank, calling it part of the Israeli government's ongoing efforts to assert full control over the West Bank and block the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In a statement, Hamas said: "This decision by (Finance Minister Bezalel) Smotrich confirms the continuation of his government's fascist agenda to take control of the entire West Bank, thereby blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state."

“This is a clear sign of Israel’s colonial intentions and denial of the Palestinian people's national rights,” Hamas added.

Hamas emphasized the Palestinian people would defeat Israeli plans to annex their land and displace them, declaring that both the Palestinian people and all their factions would “continue to resist Israeli occupation.”

Separately, Palestinian National Council President Rawhi Fattouh also condemned the Israeli settlement plan.

“This is part of a systematic policy to Judaize Palestinian land, creating colonial realities in blatant defiance of international law and global resolutions that unanimously reject the legitimacy of these settlements,” Fattouh said in a statement.

He accused Israel's government of pursuing "a campaign of apartheid and ethnic cleansing," adding that the plan is "a prelude to displacing Palestinians from their lands."

He urged global powers to fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities by taking concrete steps to halt Israeli actions.

On Thursday, Israeli Channel 14 reported that under Smotrich's leadership, the Israeli government had announced the annexation of 24,000 dunams (5,930 acres) of West Bank land, marking one of the largest such actions in decades.

On Nov. 11, the far-right minister said that next year will see the application of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.

International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal.

In July, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi