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Global silence encourages Israel to annex West Bank: Palestinian Foreign Ministry

Sunday, 11 June 2023 6:37 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 11 June 2023 7:27 PM ]

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry (Wafa news agency)

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says the international community’s silence encourages the Israeli regime to consolidate occupation of the West Bank.

In a statement released on Sunday, the ministry said the ongoing violations committed by the Israeli army and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds, amount to crimes against humanity.

The ministry believes Israel continues to formalize the official annexation of the occupied West Bank, and takes all legal, structural and field legislative measures to achieve this, in full view of the international community, and without fear of punishment, criticism or accountability.

Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous terms, the regime sped up annexing Palestinian lands in order to expand settlement projects.

Emboldened by the United States’ all-out support, Israel has stepped up settlement expansion in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

Last year prior to elections, Netanyahu agreed to hand the so-called civil administration in the occupied West Bank to the far-right Religious Zionism party, a move that signals more extremism towards Palestinians and a breach of the Abraham Accords concluded with some Persian Gulf states.

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Israeli settlers intrude into al-Aqsa Mosque

Also on Sunday, Palestinian media reports said scores of Israeli settlers intruded into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The settlers entered the courtyards of the holy site through the Moroccan Gate. They were escorted by Israeli troops. Some performed rituals and Talmudic prayers in the mosque’s courtyards, as others received lectures from rabbis about the Temple Mount.

Settler incursions under police protection into the al-Aqsa Mosque have been on the rise in recent years. There have been numerous incidents where Palestinians have been injured, killed, or arrested.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but as part of a decades-old agreement between Jordan – the custodian of Islamic and Christian sites in al-Quds – and Israel in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.

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