Israel notifies US of its agenda to 'annex' West Bank: Report
Iran Press TV
Tuesday, 02 September 2025 7:39 AM
According to a report by Israeli media, Israel has informed the US of its West Bank "annexation" plan as momentum grows internationally for recognizing Palestinian statehood.
The Hebrew-language news outlet Walla reported that Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar held a meeting on Wednesday in Washington with his American counterpart, Marco Rubio, to deliberate on the complete implementation of the scheme.
Saar suggested that the incumbent Israeli administration is discreetly moving towards "exercising sovereignty" over the Palestinian territory in the upcoming months.
The report highlighted that there are disagreements within the Israeli cabinet on the timing of the announcement.
In June, the Israeli regime unveiled a new plan for taking more land from the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The plan, led by the hawkish finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, includes the legalization of settler outposts and the forced displacement of the Bedouin communities.
On August 20, Israel approved a major settlement project, called E1, which aims to split the occupied West Bank into two parts, cutting off the northern cities of Ramallah and Nablus from Bethlehem and al-Khalil in the south and isolating East al-Quds.
At the time, the US ambassador to the Israeli-occupied territories, Mike Huckabee, claimed on Israeli Army Radio that the extensive development of settlements in the occupied West Bank does not constitute a breach of international law, and that Washington would not stand against it.
Although Huckabee's remarks pertained to the entirety of the occupied Palestinian territory, he also specifically mentioned the proposed settlement in the E1 region of occupied al-Quds.
The separation of East al-Quds from certain areas of the West Bank, often compared to the apartheid system in South Africa, will compel Palestinians to undertake long detours when traveling between various cities and towns.
Smotrich announced his intention to move forward with the highly contentious project, in what he claimed aimed to "bury the concept of a Palestinian state."
This comes as Australia, Canada, France, and Britain have announced plans to recognize Palestine during the UN General Assembly meetings later this month, joining nearly 150 countries that already have.
The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
As of the end of 2024, approximately 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers lived in the West Bank, across 180 settlements and 256 outposts - including 138 classified as agricultural or pastoral, according to Palestinian reports.
Since October 2023, after the Zionist regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza, the Israeli military has intensified daily raids and mass arrests across the West Bank, notably in the northern cities, where Israeli bulldozers have razed entire residential areas, expelling at least 40,000 people.
Israeli data show settlers staged 414 attacks against the Palestinians in the West Bank in the first half of 2025, up 30% from 2024.
Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since October 2023.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.
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