HAMAS yesterday condemned Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City and relocate its population as a clear violation of international law.
The Palestinian resistance movement warned that the move is a new phase of genocide and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the region.
Hamas made the remarks in a statement published on its Telegram channel on Sunday, following Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to take complete control of the Gaza Strip’s largest city, Gaza City.
‘The plans to occupy Gaza and displace its population are a major war crime that reflects the occupation’s disregard for international and humanitarian laws,’ it said.
Hamas further expressed scepticism towards Israel’s talk of providing shelters and humanitarian assistance in the southern Gaza Strip, labelling it as a deceptive tactic to mask its displacement plan.
The resistance group also asserted that the political and military support from the United States is enabling the occupation to continue its acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Additionally, Hamas pointed out that Netanyahu and his cabinet are actively advocating for the removal of Palestinians from their land, aligning with a strategy to extend Israel’s territory into neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Egypt, and Syria.
Hamas further cautioned that the concept of ‘Greater Israel’ presents a significant threat to the entire West Asia region.
Furthermore, the group urged Arab and Muslim nations, as well as the international community, to address and oppose Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza.
Earlier this month, Israel’s so-called ‘political-security cabinet’ approved a plan to occupy Gaza City after Netanyahu announced the regime’s intention to return the entire strip to Israeli occupation, which triggered global outrage.
At the time, the United Nations called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s invasions in the Gaza Strip ‘deeply alarming’.
Hamas also condemned Netanyahu’s plan as an extension of his genocidal policies and displacement tactics against the Palestinian people.
The Hamas Movement said that the Israeli occupation army started a week ago a frenzied attack on the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City as part of its brutal genocidal war and criminal plan to destroy the entire Gaza Strip.
‘The criminal occupation regime’s warplanes, artillery and booby-trapped robots are systematically destroying al-Zeitoun neighbourhood,’ Hamas said in a statement on Saturday.
‘The crimes that are being committed by the terrorist government of Netanyahu in the Gaza Strip, and Netanyahu’s repeated talk about the Dresden attack confirm that we are facing a new and brutal chapter of violations against innocent civilians and infrastructure,’ Hamas added.
‘The Zionist occupation’s crimes would not have continued for more than 22 months without the green light granted by the US administration to war criminal Netanyahu,’ Hamas affirmed.
Hamas called on the US administration to reconsider its involvement in the genocidal war on Gaza, and urged the international community and the UN to break their silence and take action to stop Israel’s ‘fascist war crimes in Gaza City and across the Strip’.
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‘Kill 50 Palestinians for every Israeli’ says former Israeli spy chief
Hamas yesterday condemned former Israeli military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva’s recent leaked remarks on killing 50 Palestinians for every Israeli, ‘regardless of whether they are children or women, is a systematic criminal policy,’ Hamas said.
‘Such official confessions represent evidence of the genocidal doctrine governing Israel’s behaviour and prove that the crimes committed against the Palestinian people are the result of high-level decisions and official policy adopted by Israel’s political and security leadership,’ Hamas added.
On Saturday, Israel’s Channel 12 aired leaked recordings of former military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, in which he openly justified large-scale Palestinian deaths in Gaza as a deliberate policy message.
‘For every person killed on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die,’ Haliva said in the recordings, calling the staggering death toll in Gaza ‘necessary for future generations’.
He went on to say that ‘they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price’, in reference to the 1948 mass displacement of Palestinians.
