WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s officials have warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the current crackdown on Palestinians in occupied East Al-Quds could lead to a breakout of violence, Israeli media reported.
Far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir launched a series of measures against Palestinians in the city last week, following alleged deadly car-ramming and stabbing attacks.
This operation involved demolishing at least seven buildings, arresting 100 people, setting up dozens of roadblocks and checkpoints, and confiscating money and assets from former and current political prisoners, among other measures.
The military chief of staff, director of the internal spy agency Shin Bet, and the police commissioner all told Netanyahu at a meeting this week that the crackdown must stop, Kan 11 broadcaster reported.
They asked the prime minister to urge Ben-Gvir to halt his measures.
Netanyahu reportedly sent his military secretary, Avi Gil, to speak with the minister and persuade him to end the operation.
Shin Bet director Ronen Bar - who normally reports to the prime minister - separately made a rare call to Ben-Gvir and warned him that he was “creating a feeling of collective harassment,” in East Al-Quds, Channel 13 reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth’s military expert Ron Ben-Yishai said that a “major battle” against the Gaza Strip is being prepared with the aim of restoring deterrence, as the resistance increases its efforts to battle the occupation in the West Bank.
This comes as the occupation army has escalated its military offensive against Al-Quds and the occupied West Bank, which indicates there is a possibility of looming escalation in the Gaza Strip.
During his visit to the Southern Command, war minister Yoav Gallant revealed that his regime’s policy towards Gaza will not change.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned the demolition of the homes of Palestinian resistance forces as a “brutal crime,” noting the policy shows the “bankruptcy” of the regime.
In a statement, Hamas reacted to the Zionist destruction of the home of Mohammad Jaabari, a Palestinian accused of being behind a shooting in the occupied West Bank that killed a Zionist.
“Blowing up the homes of heroes of resistance forces by Zionist occupiers is a crime that reflects their bankruptcy and their complete inability to stop the revolution of the Palestinian nation,” the resistance movement said.
Jaabari was killed by Zionist troops last year. His body was withheld from his family. The house was located in al-Khalil and was demolished by a controlled explosion. The military said the demolition was carried out after a Zionist regime court rejected appeals to spare the residence.
In another development, a group of Latin American countries decried the far-right Israeli cabinet’s decision to authorize nine illegal settlements in the West Bank, despite international outcry over the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied territories.
A statement issued by Brazil’s foreign ministry and signed by those of Argentina, Chile, and Mexico expressed “deep concern” about the occupying regime’s announcement on February 12 that it would retroactively authorize nine outposts in the West Bank and advance plans for the construction of 10,000 new units there.
“These unilateral measures constitute serious violations of international law and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council,” the statement said.
A newly-drafted UN Security Council resolution has also called on the Zionist regime to “immediately and completely” end its settlement expansion activities across the occupied Palestinian territories, in a fresh blow to the extremist Israeli cabinet’s plots to steal more Palestinian lands.