The head of the political bureau of Palestine’s resistance movement Hamas has warned Israel against its land grab policies, stressing that the illegal construction activities will be confronted with intensified resistance.
Ismail Haniyeh made the remarks on Thursday, in response to incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments a day earlier, who called expansion of the regime's illegal settlements across the occupied Palestinian territories and elsewhere a top priority of his cabinet.
The Hamas chief further warned that the political approaches of the upcoming Israeli cabinet headed by Netanyahu will aggravate the situation, emphasizing that the priority of the Palestinian people is to counter the policies of the new Israeli regime through resistance and unity.
“The settlements will be confronted by escalating the resistance, expanding its area, and applying pressure by all means available to uproot the settlers and the occupying entity from all the land of Palestine,” he said.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu announced that his cabinet "will advance and develop" the regime's illegal settlements throughout the occupied territories, including "in the Galilee, the Negev Desert, the Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)."
The Palestinian Authority (PA) denounced as “dangerous” Netanyahu's comments, saying the new cabinet’s settlement expansion policy is against international resolutions.
The Israeli regime has stepped up its illegal settlement construction activities in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounces settlements in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.