AhlulBayt News Agency: Hamas has denounced the latest wave of settler assaults and the ongoing Israeli military offensive across the occupied West Bank, describing them as “systematic terrorist practices” orchestrated by the occupying regime.
In a Friday statement, the Palestinian resistance movement said that attacks on Palestinian property, intimidation of civilians, and the firing of live ammunition at residents amount to “criminal aggression.”
Hamas accused the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing by enabling heavily armed settlers—under army protection—to spread violence throughout cities, villages, and refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.
The statement came as settler violence and military raids intensified on Friday, leaving dozens of Palestinians injured, expanding arrests, and forcing families in the northern Jordan Valley to dismantle their homes.
A major attack targeted the village of Talfit, south of Nablus, where settlers opened live fire on residents, injuring a young man in the thigh and causing additional wounds and bruises.
Palestinian media later reported that the number of injured rose to 54 after Israeli forces joined the settlers in the assault. Several Palestinians were detained.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli soldiers protected the attackers while firing live bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas toward homes, causing widespread suffocation cases.
Journalists covering the events were also targeted, with Israeli forces firing gas canisters and bullets directly at media crews.
Violence also spread to nearby Qusra, where armed settlers stormed the Ras al‑Ain area—site of a new settlement outpost—and attacked residents under military protection.
Across several parts of the central West Bank, Israeli forces carried out additional incursions and imposed movement restrictions.
Hamas called on the international community, the UN, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take “deterrent measures” against what it described as Israeli “Judaization, displacement, and annexation projects.”
The movement also urged Palestinians throughout the occupied territories to confront these “dangerous” policies and activate all forms of resistance to stop them.
Since October 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza, the regime and its settlers have sharply escalated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel recently approved new regulations aimed at tightening its control over the occupied West Bank, drawing strong condemnation from Palestinian authorities and resistance groups.
The Palestinian Authority called the decision “dangerous” and an “open attempt to legalize settlement expansion” and land confiscation.
President Mahmoud Abbas’s office urged the United States and the UN Security Council to intervene immediately.
The new rules will make it easier for settlers to purchase land in the West Bank and grant Israeli authorities greater power to enforce laws on Palestinians.
The West Bank—along with Gaza and occupied East al‑Quds—is part of the territory Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it remains under direct Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self‑rule under the Western‑backed Palestinian Authority.
Resistance groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, condemned the expansionist policy and held the United States and normalization states responsible for enabling or failing to prevent its consequences.
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