3/9/2024–|Last update: 3/9/202411:28 PM (Makkah Time)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation of a map that did not include the occupied West Bank at his press conference on Monday, saying that “presenting such maps is not a good sign and is not helpful at this time.”
Netanyahu appeared yesterday, Monday, explaining the importance of the Israeli army’s control over the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, on a map that blurred the borders of the West Bank. The absence of any reference to the West Bank on the map was striking, which Palestinians considered an explicit declaration of the annexation of the West Bank to Israel.
The appearance of the map coincides with the largest military operation launched by Israel in the occupied West Bank since 2002, targeting in particular the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, during which 30 Palestinians were killed and 130 others were injured in one week.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry considered that the map presented by Netanyahu reveals the agendas of the extreme right, stressing in a statement that this map is “a practical embodiment of an attempt to deny the Palestinian existence and its just and legitimate national rights on the path to displacing it from its homeland.”
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Tuesday that the map presented by Netanyahu yesterday reveals his intentions to annex the occupied West Bank to Israeli territory.
Abu Rudeineh considered that the statements issued by Netanyahu about not withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor, in addition to his use of a map that includes the West Bank for the occupying state, “are rejected and condemned statements, and are a serious violation of all international legitimacy resolutions and signed agreements.”
He added that it “clearly shows Israel’s premeditated intentions to perpetuate the occupation and declare annexation and settlement.”
It is noteworthy that last June, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed the accuracy of what was published by the American newspaper “The New York Times” about his efforts to annex the occupied West Bank to Israel.
This came after an audio recording of Smotrich, obtained by the newspaper, revealed that he had a “secret plan” to strengthen Israeli “control” over the occupied West Bank, and to abort any attempt to make it part of the Palestinian state.
With full American support, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, resulting in more than 135,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children.
Coinciding with this war, the Israeli army expanded its operations and the settlers escalated their attacks in the West Bank, resulting in the martyrdom of 685 Palestinians, the injury of more than 5,700, and the arrest of more than 10,400, according to official Palestinian institutions.