Pyongyang, July 20 (KCNA) -- Amid the unabated bloodshed in the war-torn Middle East, the Israeli regime recently announced the seizure of 12.7 square km of Palestinian land in the West Bank under its occupation.

A settlement watchdog termed it the biggest-ever in 30 years, saying about 23.7 square km of land in the West Bank has been declared as part of Israel's "state territory" this year alone.

Furthermore, the Israeli regime approved a huge plan to expand the Israeli settlements into the centre of the West Bank and legalize several settlements, asserting the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt must remain under Israeli control even after the current conflict in the enclave comes to an end.

This is just territorial plunder openly committed in the eyes of the international community.

The Palestinian president had already said that the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip is for separating the enclave from the Palestinian territory and eternally occupying it.

But this just assertion was flatly denied by the unilateral and prejudiced stance of the U.S. and the West that have patronized Israel, and on the contrary, Israel's massacre of Palestinians was described as "legitimate defense."

About 40 000 civilians were killed by the Zionists' indiscriminate bombardments, and many people were made homeless. Such situation indicates that the "right to self-defense" advocated by Israel is nothing but a "right" to massacre and plunder.

The seizure of land committed again in the hotbed of massacre goes to fully prove that the onslaught and vandalism, being perpetrated by Israel with the backing of the U.S. on pleas of an exercise of the "right to self-defense" and "defensive action," constitute genocide to drive the Palestinians out of their home and eternally occupy their territory.

The "right to self-defense" is inappropriate to Israel as it is a hideous occupier and destroyer of regional stability that has expanded its territory through bloody aggression and massacre against Palestinians and other Arab peoples, while persistently hindering the legitimate foundation of the State of Palestine.

It is the height of double-standards and a tragedy of this world that the U.S. and the West, which often call for respecting nations' self-determination specified in the UN Charter and international law, have connived at the most outrageous territorial expansion being pursued by the Zionists.

This jungle-law-prevailing reality, in which one cannot but shed tears if his fist is not strong, requires us to fully cement our strength for self-defense, the foundation of our nation's existence and guarantee for its eternal development, to be invincible. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche113.7.20.)