Hamas has said in a statement that the liberation of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque at its heart, is the “focus of the conflict with the Israeli enemy.”

“There is no way to liberate it except by establishing a comprehensive resistance,” the group said.

This came as today, Saturday, March 30, 2024, marked Land Day in Palestine, a recurring commemoration day for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the events of March 30, 1976 in Israel, when Israeli forces killed six unarmed Palestinians during demonstrations against Israel’s expropriation of large tracts of Palestinian-owned land.

The incident took place as a general strike, and marches were organised in various Arab towns in Israel in response to the announcement by the Israeli government to confiscate the swaths of land in question for state purposes.

As such, Palestinians gather every year in different parts of the Palestinian territory and Israel to mark Land Day as an annual commemoration demonstrating their struggle against the Israeli occupation.

Hamas added that establishing a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital was a project that did not concern the Palestinians alone but “all Arab and Islamic nations and free people of the world.”

It also said that the October 7 attack on Israel, known as the Al-Aqsa Flood, was part of “our people’s journey to defend their land and holy sites”, which will continue until the legitimate rights of Palestinians are restored.

Also in a statement commemorating Land Day, the Arab Parliament noted that the continuation of Israel’s war in Gaza “aims to destroy the identity of an entire people.”

The legislative body of the Arab League said the anniversary comes as the Palestinian people are being subjected to “a war of genocide and forced displacement” that contravenes all international laws.

It called on the international community to “shoulder its political, legal and moral responsibilities” and intervene to secure an immediate ceasefire.

The Arab Parliament added that international standards of justice must be applied “in order to reach a final, just and sustainable solution to the Palestinian question.”

Meanwhile, a report from the Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) stressed that Israel is stepping up land seizures in occupied West Bank.

According to CWRC, Israel has seized 27,000 dunams (27 square kilometres or 6,672 acres) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.

The governmental commission affiliated to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) found that the Israeli government approved 1,895 settlement units and displaced 25 Bedouin communities from Palestinian territory.

It also erected 840 checkpoints and gates in the West Bank, where illegal settlers and the Israeli military carried out 9,700 attacks against Palestinian residents and their properties.

The organisation added that 9,600 trees were destroyed, uprooted or poisoned around settlements in an attempt to evict Palestinians and create a buffer zone.

Land Theft Part Of Israeli State

Abdullah al-Arian, a researcher at Georgetown University, asserted that land theft has been “part and parcel of the Israeli state going back to its establishment in 1948.”

“Very soon after, the Israeli state established certain laws that permitted them, under a massive wide umbrella of security concerns, to be able to seize any land at any point, specifically from Palestinian residents and citizens,” he said.

He said the first Land Day was observed in 1976 and focused on a specific incident in which a parcel of land was taken from Palestinians who happened to be citizens of the state of Israel.

“They had no rights whatsoever to challenge the theft of their land, and since then, we have been seeing this marked on an annual basis,” al-Arian said.

He added, “We continue to witness this happening, not only 40 or 50 years ago, but today.”