Hamas: Israel Using Land Seizures to Annex West Bank and Expel Palestinians

Abdul Rahman Shadid says confiscations are part of a systematic plan of annexation and forced displacement, calls for urgent international action beyond empty statements

Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM - A senior leader of Hamas has warned that Israel’s escalating land confiscations in the occupied West Bank reveal a clear and deliberate plan aimed at annexation and forced displacement, calling for immediate and serious international intervention.

Land Confiscations Part of Systematic Colonial Strategy

Abdul Rahman Shadid said that the Israeli occupation’s ongoing seizure of Palestinian land demonstrates its determination to pursue organized land theft as part of a broader project of annexation and population transfer.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Shadid highlighted Israel’s decision to confiscate more than 150 dunams of land from the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, describing it as a key component of a comprehensive settlement scheme.

He said the plan is designed to suffocate Palestinian villages, sever them from their surroundings, and impose irreversible facts on the ground.

Settlements, Roads, and Economic Strangulation

Shadid explained that the occupation’s strategy relies on confiscating agricultural land, carving out settler-only roads, and expanding surrounding settlement outposts.

“These measures directly threaten the livelihoods of Palestinian communities, undermine their ability to remain on their land, and turn land itself into a tool of pressure and blackmail,” he said.

He stressed that Israel’s policies are not isolated acts, but part of a coordinated effort to dismantle the foundations of Palestinian steadfastness in the West Bank.

“Spatial Cleansing” and War Crimes

The Hamas leader said the ongoing land seizures fall within a broader policy of what he described as spatial cleansing, aimed at emptying the land of its indigenous Palestinian population and paving the way for further settlement expansion.

Shadid emphasized that such practices constitute a full-fledged war crime under international law, adding that Israel continues to carry them out with political cover and protection from the United States, which shields the occupation from accountability.

Call for Urgent International Action, Unity and Resistance

Shadid urged the international community and its institutions to take immediate and concrete action against Israel’s settlement and annexation plans, warning against limiting responses to expressions of “concern” or symbolic condemnations.

He said that silence and inaction only embolden the occupation to accelerate its crimes across the West Bank.

Addressing Palestinians directly, Shadid called for strengthened steadfastness, firm attachment to the land, and unity around national rights.

He urged the Palestinian people to consolidate their efforts within a unified national framework to support the struggle for survival and to activate all forms of resistance in order to thwart Israel’s settlement projects and forced displacement plans.

Israel’s accelerating land seizures in the West Bank continue to expose the reality of its colonial agenda—an agenda aimed not at coexistence, but at erasing Palestinian presence through annexation, displacement, and systematic theft of land, carried out under Western political protection and sustained international impunity. (PW)