Hamas: `“Concerns on West Bank future increase after Gaza pulout`

Sheikh Taiseer Amran, one of Hamas political leaders, said that the danger of settlements and land annexation in the West Bank increased since Sharon presented his pullout plan, and escalated after Israeli pulled out from Gaza.

“After Sharon implemented the Gaza pullout, Israel started a wide campaign to expand settlements and grab more lands in the West Bank, especially in Jerusalem”, Amran said, “Israel intends to link Maali Adumim settlement with Jerusalem, in order to create geographical contiguity between them by blocking the contiguity of the Palestinian areas”.

Also, Amran added that hundreds of settlers who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip were brought to settlements around Jerusalem and in the West Bank.

“Sharon clearly said that he will not evacuate large settlement blocks in the Wets Bank”, Amran stated, “This should alert us of the dangers of settlements in the Wets Bank”.

 

Amran described evacuated from Gaza as a natural outcome of the resistance and steadfastness of the Palestinian people, “Sharon did not leave Gaza because he wants peace, he left defeated by the resistance”.

“There is no doubt that the occupation wants to keep the Palestinian territories separated, Israel still controls Gaza air, sea and borders, the Palestinian should insist on rejecting any form of occupation, and be persistent to achieve the geographical contiguity”. 

Amran also said that the Israeli withdrawal from four settlements in the West Bank was only a relocation of settlers, “but the occupation is still present in every part of the West Bank”.