Israeli call for Gaza-style evacuations in West Bank ‘flagrant violation of international law’: Hamas

Palestinian resistance group Hamas denounced Israeli calls for Gaza-style evacuations of Palestinians from the northern West Bank as a "flagrant violation of international law."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called early Wednesday for dealing with the northern West Bank with the same measures applied by the army in Gaza, including the evacuation of residents.

"(This is) a fascist call to expand the circle of destruction, genocide, and ethnic cleansing against Palestinian citizens," Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq said in a statement.

"It reflects a deep-seated Israeli violation of international law and is a clear expression of the impunity enjoyed by Zionist terrorist leaders, who evade accountability and punishment for their crimes against humanity."

The Hamas leader called on the international community and the UN to "immediately work to lift the protection that the U.S. administration provides to Israeli war criminals."

The Israeli army launched a major military operation in the northern West Bank early Wednesday, the largest in two decades.

Katz said the army operation includes the "temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents" from their areas in the northern West Bank.

At least nine Palestinians have been killed since the start of the operation, according to the latest figures released by the Health Ministry.

In the course of the Israeli army's devastating onslaught against the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes and areas under evacuation orders by the Israeli army.

Over the past few years, Israeli forces have conducted regular raids in the West Bank that have escalated since the war on Gaza began last October, killing over 40,500 Palestinians so far. Palestinians in the West Bank have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

At least 660 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.