Amid Sheikh Jarrah Eviction:

Hamas Issues ‘Final’ Warning to Zionist Regime

Date: 05 May 2021 - 20:40

News ID: ۸۹۹۴۴

GAZA (Dispatches) -- The military wing of Hamas movement on Wednesday warned that the occupying regime of Israel to stop its aggression against Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem Al-Quds.
Muhammed Deif, chief of staff and supreme commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, issued a "final” warning to the Zionist regime against its planned eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the neighborhood.
"This is our final warning: If the aggression against our people in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood does not stop immediately, we will not stand idly by and the occupation will pay a heavy price,” he said.
Deif saluted the "steadfast” Palestinians at Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Al-Quds. "The resistance leadership and al-Qassam are watching closely what is happening in the neighborhood,” he said.
Zionist forces have been demolishing Palestinian homes and structures in the neighborhood for the construction of a new settlement.
With tensions escalating, Palestinian groups underlined the need for an "armed struggle”.
On Tuesday, they called on the Palestinians to take part in Friday prayers this week to counter Israeli settlers who have threatened to attack Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Several officials touched on the International Quds Day named by late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini, calling it a day of unity among Muslims in order to liberate Al-Quds from the Israeli occupation.
Since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli settlers have been trying to prevent Muslims from performing their prayers in Jerusalem Al-Quds by attacking them under the Israeli military’s protection.
Zionist forces stormed Palestinian houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of on Tuesday evening, attacking activists taking part in a sit-in solidarity protest with residents facing imminent eviction.
Three Palestinians were arrested and six injured, local sources told Middle East Eye. The Red Crescent reported that two Palestinians had been hospitalized.
Since the beginning of 2020, Israeli courts have ordered the eviction of 13 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, a residential area less than a kilometer away from the walls of the Old City of Al-Quds.
Muna al-Kurd, who was attacked on Tuesday evening, told MEE that if Zionist troops and settlers take over their houses, "then they will take the whole neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah”.
Kurd, whose brother Mahmoud owns one of the houses and was among those arrested, called for international and Palestinian activists to stop the eviction and stand against the Israeli settlers and troops.
On Sunday, the occupying regime’s supreme court ordered that the Iskafi, Kurd, Jaanoi and Qassem families - consisting of 30 adults and 10 children - evacuate their homes by May 6.
The court gave the Hammad, Dagani and Daoudi families living in the same area until August 1 to evacuate.
Abdel Fattah Iskafi told MEE that his family had lived in their home for decades.
"Israeli special forces besieged Sheikh Jarrah in the evening and didn’t allow anyone from outside, especially the solidarity activists, to enter it,” he explained.
"This was after the iftar of Ramadan. There were dozens of police and special forces, at least 60 of them, more than the whole population of Sheikh Jarrah.”
Despite the tight military cordon around the neighborhood, activists managed to find routes to reach the houses in the area.
"At about 11pm, the police attacked the residents and the activists who were there in solidarity with us. They brutally beat everyone with batons, sprayed skunk water and dispersed people with mounted horses,” Iskafi said.
Iskafi, who lives with 14

members of his extended family, including his children and grandchildren, confirmed that they would remain in Sheikh Jarrah despite the court order.
"We are not going to leave our home, we will remain until the last breath. No one can take away my memories and my heart from my home. We are not going to move anywhere and despite the stress and tough conditions, we are trying to continue our normal daily routine here,” Iskafi told MEE.
Since the Zionist regime seized East Al-Quds in the 1967 war, Israeli settler organizations have claimed ownership of the land in Sheikh Jarrah and have filed multiple successful lawsuits to evict Palestinians from the neighborhood since 1972.
In 2002, 43 Palestinians were evicted from the area and Zionist settlers took over their properties. In 2008, the Hanoun and Ghawi families were evicted and in 2017 the Shamasneh family was removed from their home by Israeli settlers.
In April, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi visited Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian Authority officials and hand over documents proving Palestinian ownership of their properties in Sheikh Jarrah, in a bid to prevent a new mass eviction.
"There is a political decision behind the eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah,” said Aref Hammad, whose family is facing eviction, and is head of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood committeed. "Israel has a grand strategy to connect East and West Al-Quds, and to remove Palestinians from areas surrounding the Old City of Al-Quds to create the so-called Holy Basin, and to build 220 settler units in the area.”
Hammad has no faith in the Israeli supreme court. "Oh, they have never issued a single decision in our favor. I have no high expectation from them,” he said.
Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank and East Al-Quds, including the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the Old City of Al-Quds, since the 1967 war.
The latest evictions come as Al-Quds has seen heightened tensions in recent weeks, with extremist Zionists staging marches calling for "Death to Arabs” amid longstanding efforts by Israeli authorities to expand settlements - which are illegal under international law - in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.