Palestinian Governor Says Israel Planning for “Nablus Nakba”
(AWP) - Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas accuses Israel of plotting the “Nablus Nakba” through practices targeting this West Bank province, adding that those practices have escalated since the Gaza war erupted on 7 October.
The Palestinians use the word ‘Nakba,’ meaning Catastrophe, to refer to their displacement from their own towns and villages prior to the year 1948, when Israel was declared as a state on those same lands.
“The city of Nablus was already under siege before 7 October, and it has grown tighter during the war. In 2023, 97 people were killed in Nablus. From 7 October until the present time, 51 people have been killed,” Daghlas said in an interview with the Arab World Press (AWP).
“There are 13 military barricades surrounding the city, 14 iron gates at the entrances of villages, and eight sand berms at the entrances of other villages. This indicates clearly that the occupation authorities have a plan in store for Nablus. Before the war, there was a political siege, not a security one. What they are plotting is to bite off a chunk of land for further settlement expansion, and to empty the streets. This is really a catastrophe for Nablus,” he explained.
Daghlas noted that settlement had not stopped since the Oslo Accords, adding that the number of settlers was 191,000 then, whereas today it is up to 725,000.
“Settlement in Nablus is the fiercest, because the terrorist leaders live in the settlement of Yitzhar. They are called the Hilltop Youth, and they live in Yash Kodesh ,in the town of Qusra. They are the ones who give orders to the settlers,” said the new governor of Nablus.
“There has been settlement expansion. There are two new settlement outposts, and a third one set up a few hours ago, in addition to 19 bypass roads in the West Bank, including two within Nablus,” he said.
“No one can impose their agenda on us as far as reforms and other internal matters are concerned. Let Ben-Gvir do his reforms in the occupation government!” he stressed.
“Ben-Gvir is a gangster. He and Smotrich are cutting off money to the Palestinian people. They are the ones who need reformation. They speak of themselves as a democracy and a state of human rights, while they are starving our children. They are the ones who need reforms. The whole world looks at them as non-democratic,” added Daghlas.