Palestinian factions condemn Israel decision to speed up settlement

Palestinian groups in Gaza strongly condemned the Israeli government’s decision to accelerate settlement activity and projects across the occupied West Bank, Anadolu news agency reported.

In separate statements, the Fatah movement, Hamas, Al-Ahrar and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) condemned the Israeli decision to give extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich control over West Bank settlement planning.

“All colonial measures are invalid and illegitimate and will be dismantled, as happened to those settlements in Gaza,” Fatah Spokesman in Gaza Monther Al-Hayek said.

Meanwhile, Hamas condemned the Israeli measure saying it is part of the plan to Judaise the Palestinian territories.

“Those settlement projects will not give the Israeli occupation legitimacy on our lands,” Hamas said in its statement.

For its part, the PFLP said the Israeli escalation in settlement construction is part of a general escalation by Israel aimed at annexing the occupied West Bank.

Al-Ahrar Movement said: “Accelerating measures of settlement construction and expansion is the latest scheme to steal the Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.”

It stressed, “This will never succeed to achieve the aggressive plans of the Israeli occupation as our people will fight back courageously.”

Besides giving Smotrich full control over settlement plans, the Israeli government yesterday also announced new tenders to build some 4,500 settlement units in existing settlements across the West Bank.

The United Nations considers all Israeli settlement activity illegal and says it undermines the internationally-agreed two-state solution.

Estimates indicate that about 700,000 settlers are living in 164 illegal settlements and 116 illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank.

In 2005, then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the evacuation of Israeli settlements in Gaza along with four settlements in the northern West Bank as part of his plan for disengagement from the territory.

READ: Palestine to boycott economic meeting with Israel over new settlement plans