Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today held the Israeli government fully responsible for the crimes of the settlers in the northern West Bank town of Huwara in Nablus and surrounding villages.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah, the Prime Minister said that last night settlers practiced the most heinous forms of crimes, including killings, setting fire to properties, and terrorizing women and children, which he stressed, will be added to the file of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation to be submitted to international courts.
He noted that the government will form a ministerial committee, which will include the ministries of local government and finance and the governor of Nablus, to assess the damage inflicted upon Palestinians and to assist in compensating them.
Shtayyeh praised the Palestinian people in Huwara and other neighborhoods for their steadfastness and for standing firm in the face of settlers.
He further called for re-activating the protection committees throughout the West Bank in light of the heinous crimes committed by fascist colonialists with the guidance of ministers in the Israeli government.
With regard to the Israeli parliament’s preliminary approval of a death penalty law for Palestinian prisoners, Shtayyeh stressed that “this decision did not shock us because this government and others are already practicing extrajudicial killings against our youth and children, otherwise how else will the world explain the killings of more than 60 Palestinians in less than two months.”
He slammed such law as a fascist and criminal law, “which will not deter us from continuing to demand our rights, freedom, and dignity to live in an independent, sovereign, contiguous, and viable state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return for refugees.”
The Prime Minister also condemned Israel’s seizure of around 200 dunums of Palestinian-owned land in the al-Auja area in Jericho under the pretext of public interest, which he said was part of Israel’s plan aimed at doubling the number of settlements and settlers on occupied Palestinian land.
“This must immediately stop,” he stressed.
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency