Hamas warns of Smotrich’s incitement to reoccupy Gaza

The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has warned that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call for reoccupying Gaza instead of negotiating with the movement represent an explicit threat to continue the genocide and forced displacement of the Palestinians in the besieged enclave. 

On Tuesday, Smotrich claimed that “Gaza is an integral part of Israel” adding “How to move on to a tangible plan (for resettlement)? We need to think about it, and above all we must succeed,” 

Smotrich, who lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank and who had threatened to leave the government if it allowed aid into Gaza, was on the back foot a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised new humanitarian deliveries.

“If I’m still in the government despite everything, it’s probably because I have good reasons to believe positive things are about to happen,” the head of the Religious Zionism Party said.

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In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas said Smotrich’s statements clearly reveal the “brazen colonial nature of the occupation government and its complete disregard for international law and UN resolutions”.

Hamas said Smotrich’s statements also come at the same time as the Israeli government moves towards annexing the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

The movement affirmed that Israel’s dangerous escalation will be met with all forms of legitimate resistance in defence of the land, national rights, and Islamic and Christian holy sites.

In its statement, it called on Arab countries, the international community, and the United Nations to shoulder their legal and moral responsibilities and take effective action to halt the Israeli occupation’s policies, which threaten to destabilise the region.

It also demanded the International Criminal Court, ICC to hold Israeli leaders, especially Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, accountable for their public incitement to kill Palestinian civilians and children and displace the Palestinian people from their land.

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