Hawzah News Agency - Palestinian group Hamas on Sunday denounced the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for importing goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the move “is tantamount to encouraging Zionist settlement building on the occupied Palestinian lands”.

The spokesman said the UAE-Israel trade deal “gives a push to the displacement policy practiced by the Zionist right wing”.

Israeli channel 7 earlier said that the first commercial shipment of goods from Israeli settlements products to the UAE began on Sunday.

According to Jerusalem Post, the Samaria Regional Council began exporting Israeli settler products to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday with labels stating that Israel is the country of origin.

A shipment of olive oil and honey from the Tura Winery in the Rehelim settlement and Paradise Honey in the Hermesh settlement will be exported.

“This is a historic day for Samaria and the entire State of Israel,” said Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who was photographed holding a box that said “Tura Winery, Rehelim, Israel.”

There was no immediate comment from Emirati authorities on the report.

The UAE and Israel signed a US-sponsored deal in September to normalize their relations, a move that was followed by Bahrain and Sudan and recently Morocco.

The normalization agreements have drawn widespread condemnations from Palestinians, who say the accords ignore their rights and do not serve the Palestinian cause.