BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16, Hamas official Abdul Rahman Shadid has called on Palestinians across the occupied West Bank to assert their presence in areas targeted for Israeli settlement expansions, warning against forced displacement.
“Settler violence will not succeed in breaking the will of the Palestinian people or uprooting them from their land,” Shadid said in a statement. “Resistance and steadfastness remain the most effective means of confronting Israeli occupation policies and settlement expansion.”
He stressed that the current situation “requires greater national unity and mobilisation” among Palestinians.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, while approximately three million Palestinians reside in the territory.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that the security cabinet approved a budget of 1.3 billion shekels ($434 million) for the construction of 34 new settlements in the West Bank.
