Hamas: Settlers storming Mount Abu Subaih does not legitimise illegal settlement

Hamas yesterday stressed that thousands of illegal Israeli settlers storming Mount Abu Subaih in the village of Beita, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, does not legitimize settlement.

In a statement, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq said: “What was built on falsehood, extortion, and occupation will remain illegitimate and illegal.”

This came after thousands of settlers and members of right-wing settler organizations, together with senior Israeli government ministers marched to the illegal outpost of Evyatar on top of Mount Abu Subaih.

Abu Marzouq stated that giving permission for this “provocative” march and affording it with military protection amidst the high tensions is a “persistence on the perpetuation of ongoing escalation,” blaming Israel for any potential consequences.

He said that any Palestinian response to this “provocation would be legitimate because of the massive harm inflicted on the Palestinians in this area, where Jewish settler marchers stole resources and wealth.”

The senior Hamas leader said that this march “is a slap in the face of all ongoing regional and international efforts aimed at de-escalating the situation.”

The march, he added, “gave the Palestinian resistance an incentive to keep its hand on the trigger, to be ready to face off the heinous crimes being prepared by the Israeli occupation.”

The Israeli left-wing Yesh Din organization denounced the march as “a Jewish supremacy protest” designed to antagonize Palestinians.

“While the residents of the Palestinian territories are subject to a blockade, masses of settlers will march to raise up the banner of an ideology of expropriation and plunder,” the organization said.

It added: “The participation of [government] ministers in the march today is more fuel for the burning fire in the occupied territories when the main victims are as usual — the Palestinians.”