“Our message to the neighbors beyond the fence, in Tulkarm, Nur al-Shams, Shawika and Qalqilya; we will turn you into ruined cities like in the Gaza Strip if the terror you inflict on the settlements continues.”
The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to destroy towns in the northern occupied West Bank, “like in the Gaza Strip.”
“I am finishing a tour with the heads of the authorities along the seam zone,” he said in a video posted on his X account on Thursday. “Our message to the neighbors beyond the fence, in Tulkarm, Nur al-Shams, Shawika and Qalqilya; we will turn you into ruined cities like in the Gaza Strip if the terror you inflict on the settlements continues.”
This follows an “infiltration operation” by a special unit of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Beit Hefer illegal settlement on Wednesday night.
In a message to “the citizens of Israel,” Smotrich said that “if, God forbid, a Palestinian state is established, what happened in the settlements around Gaza on October 7, can happen here as well. this will not come to be and will not happen.”
אני מסיים סיור עם ראשי הרשויות בקו התפר.
המסר שלנו לשכנים מעבר לגדר, בטולכרם, נור א-שאמס, שוויקה וקלקיליה,
אנחנו נהפוך אתכם לעיי חורבות כמו ברצועת עזה אם הטרור שאתם מפעילים על היישובים יימשך. הטרור על אזרחי ישראל חייב להיפסק.המסר לאזרחי ישראל הוא שאם חלילה תקום מדינה פלסטינית,… pic.twitter.com/PgIVY864Li
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) May 30, 2024
He vowed to “continue to rule Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term for the occupied West Bank, saying that “this is the security belt of the settlements along the seam zone and of the large cities that are west of here within the State of Israel.”
Increased Raids
Tensions have escalated across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against Gaza following a resistance operation carried out on October 7.
Israeli forces have increased raids in many of the towns in the occupied territory including East Jerusalem, clashing with resistance fighters during these incursions.
At least 519 Palestinians have since been killed and over 4,900 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
In addition, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has said that Israel “is working to drive Palestinian pastoral communities out of their homes” in the occupied West Bank, combining “official practices” and “organized settler violence” to achieve its aims.
West Bank Update – Soldiers Killed, Mass Raids, Market Destroyed in Fire
In February and March 2024, B’Tselem documented some 20 incidents in which illegal Jewish settlers and soldiers drove Palestinian shepherds out of pastureland in the South Hebron (Al Khalil) Hills, using various means, the organization said in a statement.
“These incidents are part of a deliberate pattern of settler actions meant to promote Israel’s policy of expulsion, crucially affecting the survival of these communities,” it said.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
What a douche!