US President Donald Trump has said he will not allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The US president told White House reporters ahead of Netanyahu’s speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday, “I will not allow Israel to seize the West Bank… It will not happen.”
Trump, who will visit Netanyahu on Monday, also stated that a cease-fire agreement over the Gaza conflict was “pretty close.”
Israel is under increasing international pressure to end the conflict and occupation of the West Bank, as a number of Western countries publicly recognize an independent Palestinian state. Far-right Israelis saw annexation as a way to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Ultranationalists in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition have often called for Israel to acquire the West Bank, which is part of the Palestinian territory, completely.
The United Kingdom and Germany have urged Israel against annexation, while UN Secretary General António Guterres has stated that such a move would be “morally, legally, and politically intolerable.”
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Trump opposes Palestinian state recognition
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he had spoken with Netanyahu and other Middle Eastern leaders.
“We’re getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza, and maybe even peace,” Trump said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly via video connection the same day that he was willing to engage with world leaders to implement a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians unveiled by France on Monday.
The United States prevented the 89-year-old from visiting New York, the location of the UN headquarters.
Abbas congratulated countries that had lately recognized a Palestinian state in a wave of pronouncements that began on Sunday with Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Portugal and was followed by France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Denmark.
The United States now opposes recognizing Palestine, claiming that doing so will reward Hamas.
“Hamas will not have a role to play in governance,” Abbas said in his speech. He also called for a Palestinian state to assume “full responsibilities” for the Gaza Strip following an Israeli withdrawal and connect it with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
On Tuesday, Trump met with the leaders of key Arab and Muslim nations at the United Nations, who warned him of the dangers of Israel’s annexation.
“I think the president of the US understands very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters afterwards.
On Wednesday morning, Israel closed the only crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and neighboring Jordan, denying more than two million Palestinians access to the outside world.
The closure occurred days after two Israeli military officers were slain at the crossing by a Jordanian shooter who died on the scene.
On Wednesday, Israeli fire killed more than 80 Palestinians, including women and children, the majority of whom were in Gaza City, according to local hospitals.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in reaction to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed over 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 others.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, at least 65,419 individuals have died as a result of Israeli attacks since then, including over 18,000 children.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed authority, more than half a million people in Gaza are experiencing “catastrophic” conditions characterized by “starvation, destitution, and death” in August. Netanyahu has frequently denied that famine is occurring in Gaza.
A United Nations commission of investigation ruled that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a report that Israel’s foreign ministry vehemently condemned as “distorted and false.”
Israel is under increasing pressure to cease the conflict and occupation.
In addition to more countries recognizing a Palestinian state, the European Commission has announced intentions to limit commerce with Israel and impose penalties on radical ministers in its government, which, if implemented, would be the EU’s harshest response to the Gaza conflict.
Microsoft cut off some services to an Israeli Ministry of Defence unit this week after an investigation revealed that its technology was used to perform mass spying on Gaza residents.
But Netanyahu has urged Israel to embrace more self-sufficiency.
