By SCM Staff Writer I Sunday, October 05, 2025
GAZA, Palestine – A senior leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, on Sunday condemned what he called an “unprecedented settlement escalation” in the West Bank, citing the establishment of 117 new settlement outposts since the October 7, 2023, attacks.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a prominent figure in the terror organization, claimed the new outposts are part of a “systematic policy to swallow more Palestinian lands and impose Judaization facts on the ground,” which he asserts is designed to achieve Israel’s “dream of annexation and displacement.”
In a statement released today, Mardawi explicitly linked the expansion of settlements to a parallel “unprecedented escalation in military and field attacks across all governorates of the West Bank.”
He enumerated these as including “raids, arrests, demolition of homes, confiscation of property, and the imposition of a suffocating siege on cities, villages, and camps,” which he characterized as an attempt to “extinguish the spirit of resistance and break the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.”
The Hamas leader went on to accuse Israel of implementing a “fully integrated apartheid policy” with the goal of “empty[ing] the land of its original inhabitants,” which he deemed a “flagrant violation of all international laws and agreements.”
Mardawi concluded his statement with a defiant call to arms, affirming that “our people will continue their resistance and steadfastness in the face of settlement and aggression,” and vowing that “all occupation projects will be shattered before the will of the Palestinian who clings to his land and identity.”
Mardawi’s remarks come amid heightened international scrutiny on settlement construction and settler violence in the West Bank, issues which have been repeatedly raised by governments and human rights organizations, particularly following the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Israel, for its part, routinely defends its presence and activities in the West Bank as a matter of security and historical right, and maintains that outposts constructed without state authorization are illegal under Israeli law, although critics argue enforcement is often negligible or selectively applied.
