RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY (AA) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas have both slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on Monday to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. <br> </p> <p>In a statement released by his office and carried by Palestine’s WAFA news agency, Abbas condemned Trump’s recent decisions on both Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which, he said, “contravene international law and legitimacy”. <br> </p> <p>“There is no legitimacy that can override UN Security Council resolutions, the UN General Assembly or the [2202] Arab Peace Initiative,” Abbas said. <br> </p> <p>He also decried recent Israeli escalations against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. <br> </p> <p>Earlier Monday, Trump officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. <br> </p> <p>He signed a presidential proclamation to this effect at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, describing the occupied Syrian territory as “a potential launching ground for attacks against Israel”.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, said the Golan Heights would “forever remain an integral part of Syria”.</p> <p>In a statement, Haniyeh said: “Hamas stands by Syria in the face of this American arrogance, which does not respect custom or international law, and which has also affected the twin issues of Jerusalem and [Palestinian] refugees.”<br>
Israel continues to occupy roughly two-thirds of the wider Golan Heights region, which it seized from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
In 1981, Israel formally annexed the territory in a move unanimously rejected at the time by the UN Security Council.
<p>UN Security Council Resolution 497 (1981) reads in part: “The Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect.” <br> </p> <p>The resolution goes on to call for Israel’s withdrawal from the territory.</p> <p>On Monday, the UN said the Golan’s legal status would remain unchanged — despite Trump’s announcement — and would still be considered an “occupied territory” under international law.</p> <p>*Writing by Anees Barghothi and Mahmoud Barakat
