WEST BANK, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi has strongly denounced the Israeli reestablishment of the illegal Sanur settlement in Jenin, calling the step a “dangerous escalation targeting the Palestinian presence in the occupied West Bank.”
In a statement on Sunday, Mardawi said that the reopening of this settlement in the presence of settler leaders and government officials “marks an unprecedented escalation in settlement expansion,” which he described as “part of broader plans to annex and assert full control over Palestinian land.”
The Hamas official warned that northern West Bank settlement projects, especially the revival of previously evacuated outposts, carry severe consequences, saying such expansion plans bring drastic changes to the situation on the ground.
He called for staging angry rallies and activating all forms of resistance in the West Bank to thwart settlement expansion and safeguard Palestinian land.
Senior Israeli officials, including ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz, attended on Sunday the official reopening of the illegal Sanur settlement in the northern West Bank, nearly 21 years after it was evacuated in 2005.
According to the Hebrew media, the Israeli government approved the construction of 126 housing units in this settlement, south of Jenin, and allowed 16 families to start moving in.
The Sanur settlement was evacuated as part of a 2005 disengagement plan that also saw settlers removed from Gaza. Settlers had attempted to reestablish it over the years.
It is one of four former West Bank settlements that have been recently approved by the Israeli government in violation of international law.
