The Israeli occupation forces have continued to carry out incursions across al-Quds, razing homes in the southern part of the occupied ancient city, says an al-Quds-based journalist.
Annan Najib told Press TV website on Monday that clashes between the Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians are “taking place across the city as we speak.”
“Since the early morning, bulldozers and vehicles of the Israeli army started razing houses and industrial buildings in the Southern part of al-Quds, in the Selwan and Jabal Mokabber towns in particular,” Najib said.
The Israeli regime began on Sunday to implement the orders of the so-called minister of national security, Ben Gvir, to demolish 14 homes east of occupied al-Quds.
The recent escalation in al-Quds and the West Bank comes against the backdrop of Israel’s incursions into the Jenin refugee camp.
The Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Jenin and its refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing ten Palestinians and injuring many others. A 61-year-old woman was among the Palestinians killed in the Israeli military raid.
'Real escalation to come in Holy month of Ramadan'
Palestinian analysts agree that the escalation in the Palestinian territories signifies a worse situation in the coming weeks, warning of Israeli occupation plans and provocative practices against al-Aqsa Mosque in the holy month of Ramadan.
In this context, Najib said that the Israeli regime is scared to death because the month of Ramadan is the anniversary of clashes through which the Palestinians were able to get back access to the Bab al-Amoud area.
“This coming Ramadan, the real escalation will be against al Aqsa-Mosque, which coincides with some Jewish rituals and religious holidays,” he said.
Bab al-Amoud, also known as the Damascus gate, is used by Palestinians to enter the Old City; the area is one of the main focal points of Palestinian life in al-Quds and has been a flashpoint in the occupied territories, where Israeli forces recurrently attack Palestinians.
'Normalizing countries do not want peace'
At the time Israeli crimes across the occupied Palestinian territories continue, the international community and a majority of the Arab countries set a blind eye to these violations of human rights. Also, some Arab countries have signed the Abraham agreement in 2020, with the aim of normalizing ties with the Israeli regime.
“Palestinians reject the so-called two-state solution as disastrous and impossible, and believe it is not a real solution,” the prominent journalist said.
“If the countries normalizing with Israel were sincerely concerned with ‘peace’ on the basis of the so-called two-state solution, as they claim, their response to the al-Quds operations should have simply been to remind the Israeli regime that it should compile with international resolutions and withdraw their settlements from occupied al-Quds,” Najib said.
He described the mere existence of normalization as a “war crime”, arguing that all of its effects are null and cannot be established.
“The leaders of the normalizing countries do not seek ‘peace’, but rather, they seek an alliance with Zionism; and their behavior comes to give the apartheid regime sufficient cover for acts of aggression and crime,” the analyst said.
'Living through an intifada, waiting to see victory'
On whether Palestine is in fact living another intifada, or uprising, the al-Quds-based journalist, who was also a detainee in Israeli prisons, told Press TV: “We live a real intifada. The West Bank is in real confrontation with the Israeli enemy on a daily basis since two years ago, while occupied al-Quds witnesses violence flaring every now and then since the Palestinian child Mohammad Abu Khodeir was killed some ten years ago.”
In 2014, 17-year-old Palestinian boy Mohamed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and murdered by Israeli extremists and was burned alive after suffering a head injury.
Commenting on extremism which has been on the rise especially since the far-right PM Benjamin Netanyahu took office, the analyst said “the fascist Israeli regime led by the extremist far-right Netanyahu thinks that the Palestinian people can be defeated easily and that the Israeli troops and extremists can take control of al-Aqsa mosque, desecrate and divide it.”
However, Najib said, these thoughts are far from reality.
“What Israel does not realize is that the Palestinian resistance is growing by the day and it will drag Israel into a pit. The apartheid regime should shoo away the illusion that the occupied Palestine on which they have set up their illegal settlements will be their ‘forever safe haven’.”
History, according to Najib, showed that the Israeli army was no longer invincible. In 2006, it was badly defeated in its war on Lebanon.
“This is a historical reality and Israel will be defeated in Palestine too. The normalizing countries should understand this reality,” he concluded.