Palestinian president’s adviser accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing in West Bank

Israel has displaced more than 3,000 Palestinians from their homes in the northern occupied West Bank over the past two years, particularly in the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser Mahmoud al-Habbash said, warning that the same scenario could be repeated in Hebron.

Speaking to Cairo News Channel presenter Yasser Rushdi, al-Habbash said hundreds of Palestinian families, including shepherds, tribal communities and Bedouin families living in the mountainous areas of the West Bank, had been forced to leave their homes and prevented from grazing their sheep, threatening their livelihoods and stability.

He said these developments raised concerns about a systematic plan to remove Palestinians from their land, adding that such fears had grown amid statements by Israeli officials about displacing Palestinians and clearing areas of their inhabitants.

Al-Habbash said Israel justified its actions on security grounds, but argued that what was happening on the ground went beyond security measures and amounted to collective punishment and the displacement of Palestinians from their land, helping to entrench the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

READ: Israeli army turns Palestinian homes into military posts in West Bank city of Hebron