Haroun Nasser al-Din, a member of the Hamas political arm, has said that the founding of a new town in Gush Etzion for the first time in around 20 years expresses the "Israeli desire to speed up the plan of annexation and the eviction of Palestinians."
Dozens of residents and new families on Thursday moved to the new town of Heletz, which was set up in Gush Etzion and connects the area to Jerusalem. The town is located on a hill between Sde Boaz and Mount Gilo, south of Jerusalem, and connects the capital city to Gush Etzion.
The land upon which the town was built was purchased by Heimanuta, a daughter company of the Jewish National Fund, in 1969. In 2019, the Tal family received permission from the owners to use the land, and with the aid of the Amana movement, the family built the Neve Ori farm, in memory of Ori Ansbacher, who was brutally murdered in a 2018 terror attack.
"Our nation's firm stance is the security valve by which we thwart the occupation's aspirations to empty the West Bank in order to implement additional settlement projects," he added.
He also called to increase terror activity, so as to stop the Jewish settlements.