US’s support emboldening Israel to expand settlement activities: Hamas

The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas has strongly denounced new Israeli plans to build more settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Lands, stressing that such criminal policies were the direct result of the US's unconditional support for the Tel Aviv regime.

According to Press TV, Hamas said in a recent statement that Israel had endorsed plans to seize large swathes of Palestinian land to build 2,000 new settler units near Beit Safafa Town in occupied al-Quds.

"The settlement expansion in al-Quds is a crime that reflects the American support for the occupation's projects and exposes the false claims of peace," the statement read.

Hamas further said that the resumption of Israel's settlement activities came against the backdrop of US President Joe Biden's controversial trip to the Occupied Territories and West Asia.

"The timing of this settlement project after US President Biden's visit to the Zionist entity reveals once again the size of support and official cover being provided by the US administration for the enemy in its aggression against our land, people and holy sites."

Elsewhere in the statement, Hamas said that Israel's persistence in expanding settlements reflected "the dangerous nature of the Zionist project that is based on Judaizing the Palestinian land and displacing its people."

It also described the plan as "another desperate and failed attempt to impose a demographic fait accompli and target the Palestinian people's rights and identity."

Palestinian media on Tuesday quoted the Head of the Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission, Muayyad Shaaban, as revealing that the Israeli authorities had legalized the Mitzpe Dani settlement outpost east of the West Bank city of Ramallah and endorsed a plan to add 114 new settler units to it.

ME