Hamas: Arrest of Palestinians cannot weaken anti-Israel resistance in West Bank

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Israel’s arrest of a group of Palestinians over a recent shooting attack that killed a settler and injured two others in northern West Bank is a desperate attempt that will not break or undermine the resistance in the occupied territory.

Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu made the remarks at a press briefing on Sunday, after the Shin Bet spy agency announced earlier in the day that six Palestinians had been arrested during an overnight raid in the village of Silat al-Harithiya, near the city of Jenin, by the Israel army and police forces. They were all handed over to the Shin Bet for interrogation.

“The flame of resistance will continue glowing as well as confrontation with the terrorism of the occupation [regime] and its settlers,” the Hamas spokesman said, as he hailed the steadfastness of resistance fighters and revolutionary youths in the West Bank and al-Quds in facing the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

He further urged the Palestinian people in the occupied territories to continue confronting Israeli forces and to increase their resistance against the Israeli occupation.

On Thursday, a 25-year-old Israeli settler was killed and two others were lightly hurt as their car came under fire near the illegal Homesh outpost.

Read more:

• One Israeli settler killed, two more injured in West Bank shooting: Medics

Palestinian resistance movements hailed the shooting operation against extremist settlers, stating that the incident is a natural response to the crimes being committed by Israel on a daily basis.

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement said the attack proves that Palestinians are continuing the struggle to liberate their land.

Palestinians are outraged by rising settler attacks on their villages, with backing from Israeli troops.

Incidents of sabotage and violence by settlers against Palestinians and their property have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.

However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute Israeli settlers and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.

Settler violence includes property and mosque arson attacks, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem has documented hundreds of such attacks this year alone.

Attacks by settlers against Palestinians have particularly intensified in the past few months.

The United Nations has already warned of a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, mostly in the areas of al-Khalil, al-Quds, Nablus and Ramallah.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since 1967. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.

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