Palestinian resistance movements have strongly condemned the Israeli parliament’s final approval of a law allowing the deportation of Palestinian resistance fighters’ family members to Gaza and elsewhere.

On Thursday, Hamas called the measure an affirmation of Israel’s hostile and racist approach to Palestinian people in all places where they are present.

Israel’s parliament (Knesset) approved a controversial law allowing the deportation of family members of individuals who carry out attacks against Israeli forces and settlers.

Advocated by members of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies, the legislation was passed on Thursday by a vote of 61-41.

The law authorizes the regime’s interior minister to deport a family member to the Gaza Strip or other destinations, depending on circumstances, if it is found that they “knew in advance” of the attacker’s plan and did nothing to prevent it.

The interior minister would also be allowed to expel a relative who “expressed support or sympathy” for attacks in the occupied territories.

“The Zionist occupation Knesset’s approval today of a law to expel and deport Palestinian families from inside Palestine occupied in 1948 and Al-Quds, under the pretext that one of its members carried out fida’i (resistance) operations against the occupation, is an affirmation of the hostile and racist approach and forced displacement against our people in all places where they are present,” Hamas said.   

It added that the law violates the most basic standards of human rights and is an example of collective punishment that violates international humanitarian law.

“We call on the international community and human rights institutions to condemn this law, which violates the most basic standards of human rights and falls within the policy of collective punishment that violates international humanitarian law, and to take measures and procedures that oblige the occupation to retract these unjust laws that degrade human dignity,” Hamas said.

The Islamic Jihad also rapped the legislation, describing it as dangerous and a flagrant violation of all international conventions and norms that prohibit collective punishment.

It reiterated that the law is aimed at ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.

“Through a series of recently enacted laws—and others currently being pushed—the Zionist Knesset has proven itself to be a tool of ethnic cleansing against our people and an integral part of the war of genocide employed by the entity in its relentless war against our people across Palestine,” said Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.

“Granting a convicted criminal—currently serving as the Minister of Interior—the power to expel entire families as part of collective punishment only underscores the moral degradation of the zionist entity. It is well-known that Ben Gvir, whose police force is involved in extrajudicial killings of our people in the streets, is now inciting mass slaughter by advocating for a law allowing the execution of a large number of prisoners,” the Islamic Jihad added.

“We hold the so-called international community, global institutions, and regimes normalizing ties with this Nazi-like entity accountable for its continued aggression against the Palestinian people, as their disgraceful silence provides cover for its criminal policies,” it noted.

The Mujahideen Movement also condemned the law as another contempt of the international community as well as international norms and conventions by the regime.

“We strongly condemn the approval by the Zionist Knesset of a law that allows the Minister of the Interior to deport the families of operation perpetrators for up to twenty years, imprison children, and prosecute them in a step that is considered part of the genocide and ethnic cleansing war that the entity is carrying out against our people in all places of their presence,” said the Mujahideen Movement.

“The criminal steps approved by the Zionist Knesset prove once again that it is one of the tools of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing against our people, and it is an institution for legitimizing Zionist crimes,” it added.

 The Mujahideen Movement stated that the new decision is another contempt of the international community, its resolutions, and the international norms and conventions that criminalize collective punishment and the persecution of human beings, especially children and women.