Hamas: Smotrich’s Plan Backs Netanyahu’s ‘Greater Israel’

By Staff, Agencies

Hamas announced that a plan by extremist "Israeli" minister Bezalel Smotrich to outrageously expand the "Israeli" occupation in the West Bank reflects the entity’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s so-called “Greater ‘Israel’” scheme.

Mahmoud Mardawi, one of the Palestinian resistance movement’s senior leaders, made his remarks on Friday. “Smotrich expresses the entity's position, but Netanyahu, from a diplomatic standpoint, tries to hide behind this position of Smotrich,” he said.

Mardawi’s remarks came after the "Israeli" minister reaffirmed steadfast commitment to a plan for construction of over 3,000 illegal settler units in the West Bank. Smotrich also said the plan would effectively "bury" the prospect of a Palestinian state.

Days earlier, Netanyahu had unveiled his aspirations for realization of the "Greater 'Israel'" scheme, in line with which, the entity would try to extend its occupation of the West Bank over independent nations, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

“'Israel', with its identity and policies, must be confronted based on what it believes in, which is a blatant aggression against Palestinians in the first place,” the resistance official said.

Those policies were embodied in "Israel’s" October 2023-present war of genocide on the Gaza Strip, which has so far claimed the lives of nearly 61,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, he added.

According to Mardawi, "Israel" was practically seeking to kill “all living beings in Gaza” through its atrocities.

The Palestinian official added that the resistance had known from long ago about "Israel’s" harboring expansionist plots, which he said were deeply rooted in the “Zionist political expansionist thought.”

The official urged the Arab League’s member states to respond to such schemes proportionately by severing ties with the Zionist entity and withdrawing their ambassadors from the occupied Palestinian territories.

He said, although, some Arab states had condemned the scheme, they were yet to take action by imposing sanctions on "Israel".

The official also categorically ruled out the prospect of the resistance’s laying down its arms, asking, “What is the value of the resistance laying down its arms while the enemy wreaks havoc?”