RABAT, May 29. /TASS/. The Palestinian Hamas movement has called on the international community, including the United Nations, to take steps to curb Israel's policy of annexation and settlement expansion.
In a communique posted on Telegram, Hamas said that the approval by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a plan to build 22 Jewish settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan River is "another confirmation that the criminal Zionist occupier continues to impose facts on the ground by accelerating the Judaization of Palestinian lands as part of an open annexation project. This is a blatant challenge to international will and a gross violation of international law and UN resolutions.
"We, Hamas, call on the United Nations and the international community to take urgent, practical and deterrent measures, beyond formal condemnation, to counter attempts to quash the Palestinian cause, as well as to put an end to the policy of annexation and settlement expansion, which constitutes a war crime and an ongoing ethnic cleansing."
Earlier this week, Palestinian Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the Israeli plan "leads to a dangerous escalation and is a challenge to international law."