Hamas Welcomes UN Security Council Resolution

• 12.25.2016, 16:04
•  Near East,  World

AFP/Mahmud Hams

Hamas welcomed a landmark UN Security Council vote demanding a halt to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with the Palestinian Islamist movement saying it marked an "important evolution," The Times of Israel reports.

"We salute this important evolution in international positions," he said, while calling for more such actions to bring about "the end of the occupation."

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, where Hamas seized power two years later, but has occupied the West Bank for nearly 50 years.

There have been growing warnings that settlement building in the West Bank is fast eroding the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.