Israeli troops search a building in the West Bank city of Jenin during an Israeli military operation on Aug. 6, 2024. File Photo by Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE
Aug. 11 (UPI) — Hamas warned Israel on Sunday against attacking a West Bank refugee camp after remarks from Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz indicated his support for bombing it.
The resistance militia called Katz’s remarks “a clear expression” of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. According to the Palestine Chronicle citing Israel’s state-run broadcaster, Katz had called for the Jenin camp to be treated the same as Gaza and urged for the evacuation of civilians.
“We warn against the criminal plans of the Zionist extremist government towards the occupied West Bank, which are revealed by the statements of the terrorist Katz,” Hamas said.
Hamas also condemned recent statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — an illegal migrant living on Palestinian land in the West Bank.
“Starving and annihilating two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is a just and moral matter,” Smotrich had said.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops are closing entrances to Palestinian cities in the West Bank, leaving residents fearing that their movement will soon be restricted.
The Palestine News Agency, also known as WAFA, reported that military restrictions were imposed around Jericho with military checkpoints set up at the entrances to the city.
And at the village of Jouret al-Sham’a, south of Bethlehem, Israeli forces installed an iron gate at the village’s only entrance, according to the head of the village council.
He expressed fears to WAFA that Israel would “besiege its residents” and limit their freedom of movement.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces stormed the West Bank villages of Kardala and Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley and closed existing military checkpoints at Tayasir and Hamra.
“We affirm that these ongoing crimes, killings, terrorism, intimidation, and systematic sabotage practiced by the Nazi enemy government and army in the cities and camps of the West Bank will not succeed in dissuading our free people, their valiant resistance, and their revolutionary youth from the choice of steadfastness on this land,” Hamas said.
Hamas vowed that Palestinians would remain resistant to Israeli occupation until the independent state of Palestine is fully established with Jerusalem as its capital.