WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s new rulers reached an agreement to expand settlements in Al-Khalil on Wednesday.
The decision came a day before the new rulers, a far-right coalition of Likud, the Religious Zionism party and the ultra-orthodox religious parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, is sworn in.
The move will strengthen the numbers of the Zionist community in Al-Khalil, and allow authorities to revoke the citizenship of, and deport, Palestinians found to be “terrorists”.
The agreement is one of many legal decisions designed to aid the regime’s aim of expanding illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The Knesset also passed the “Ben-Gvir law” on Wednesday, which will give more authority over policing to Itamar Ben-Gvir, the incoming so-called national security minister.
The coalition also agreed reforms to the judicial system, one of which will allow a Knesset majority to overrule supreme court rulings.
The parliament will vote on the new cabinet on Thursday, according to the Knesset speaker, after two months of coalition negotiations.
Al-Khalil’s Ibrahimi Mosque is regarded as a holy site by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike as the birthplace of Prophet Abraham.
In 1994, an armed Zionist settler, Baruch Goldstein, entered the complex during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29 people and wounding more than 120.
Until his recent election to the Knesset, a picture of Goldstein hung on the wall of Ben-Gvir’s home.
The developments come amid elevated tensions against Palestinians.
In a recent incident, several Palestinian children have suffered suffocation from teargas canisters fired by Zionist troops in the city of Al-Khalil, as Zionist troops continue systematic aggression against Palestinians.
The Zionist troops fired teargas canisters at students as they were leaving their schools in the southern parts of Al-Khalil on Tuesday. A few students who suffered suffocation were treated on the spot.
According to the Palestinian Quds news network, the children panicked as gas filled the air and did not know where to go to avoid breathing in the toxic gases, while local residents tried helping them run away to a safe place.