Palestinians Condemn Israel's Approval of Bill Allowing Settlers to Return to Evacuated Settlements

The Israeli regime legislature passed the second and third readings of the bill that "repeals the clauses of the Disengagement Law that ban settlers from living in the region where the four settlements were established," according to the Palestinian Information Center news agency.

Hamas, the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement, condemned the move. Spokesman Jihad Taha called the decision "part of the Israeli settlement expansion and Judaization plans," and urged the international community to stop Israel's racist crimes. Taha warned that such plans "will be met with more resistance."

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas, also denounced the move. The decision violated "the resolutions of international legitimacy, particularly UN Security Council resolution 2334, which considers all settlements in all the Palestinian lands to be illegal," according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.

There are currently more than 600,000 Israelis living in over 230 illegal settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds that have been built since the 1967 Israeli occupation. Palestinians want the West Bank to be part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.