‘Collective punishment’: Hamas condemns Israel’s mass abductions in Tulkarem raid
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned a major Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Tulkarem, calling mass abductions “collective punishment” and vowing that such actions will not break the will of the Palestinian people.
In a statement released on Friday, Hamas slammed the Israeli move as a reflection of “the criminal face of this fascist entity, which only excels in killing, torture, and abuse.”
On Thursday night, locally filmed footage showed Israeli soldiers forcing abducted Palestinians to march in lines through the streets, an act widely condemned as a humiliating display of power.
Tulkarem Governor Abdullah Kamil called on the UN and humanitarian organizations on Friday to intervene against these “crimes” targeting the city’s population.
Hamas condemned the raid, calling it an attempt “to humiliate” Palestinians by marching them in “human chains”, which is part of “a terrorist policy” of “collective punishment against civilians.”
In its statement, Hamas noted that footage of the abductions showed Israeli forces in a “state of confusion,” arguing that it exposed a strategy that “disregards all norms and laws, and is founded on killing, genocide, arbitrary detention, and the violation of all human rights and standards.”
In the aftermath of a deadly shooting near Ramot Junction, Israeli forces have imposed sweeping restrictions on Palestinian villages northwest of Al-Quds.
Hamas affirmed that such aggression and abductions in Tulkarem and across all governorates of the West Bank will “not break the will and resolve of our steadfast people, nor will they bring security or stability to this criminal occupation, but will deepen its security and political crisis.”
Hamas called on Palestinians in the West Bank to “unite in the field of resilience and steadfastness” to “thwart [Israel’s] malicious plans for annexation, displacement, and its dreams of imposing full control over the West Bank.”
Israeli regime officials threatened that the entity could proceed with the annexation of large tracts of the occupied territory in response to moves by Western governments to recognize Palestinian statehood this month.
Far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich recently announced plans to annex more than 80 percent of the occupied West Bank in a bid to block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Palestinian resistance fighters waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the regime’s intensified atrocities against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed more than 64,750 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Since Israel the beginning of the Gaza war, the regime has also intensified its attacks in various parts of the West Bank.
