Hamas warns Israel’s crimes against Palestinians won’t go unpunished

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned that Israel’s never-ending aggression and the crimes committed by settlers against the Palestinian people will not go unpunished.

In a statement released on Monday, Ezzat al-Resheq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said demolishing houses, forcing people from homes, and killing young men will not go unanswered. He described Israel’s systematic demolition of Palestinian homes as a crime against humanity.

The Hamas official said the current Israeli policy would never make the Tel Aviv regime secure, rather it would galvanize the Palestinian people’s resistance.

Elsewhere in the statement, Resheq saluted the brave Palestinian youth for standing up against the Israeli aggression across the occupied territories.

For months Israel has been engaged in intensified settlement activities, and its planned eviction of Palestinian families from their ancestral homes in the occupied East al-Quds neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and several other areas has led to further escalation.

Palestinian rights groups and activists have warned that Israel’s behavior in the occupied West Bank could lead to a new Intifada (uprising).

Tel Aviv is under fire for its extensive use of lethal force and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians. Incidents of sabotage and violence by settlers against Palestinians and their property have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank. But Israeli authorities rarely prosecute settlers.

Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control order to benefit Israelis, which amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law, Amnesty International said in a recent report.

“Laws, policies and practices which are intended to maintain a cruel system of control over Palestinians, have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished, and in a constant state of fear and insecurity,” the UK-based human rights group said.

The term “apartheid” was originally used to refer to a political system in South Africa which explicitly enforced racial segregation, and the domination and oppression of the minority white population against blacks.

Human rights have long been side-lined by the international community when dealing with the decades-long struggle and suffering of Palestinians, Amnesty said.

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