Washington has repeatedly said that any annexation of the West Bank would cross a red line.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” Donald Trump told reporters at the White House in September.
Some in Trump’s administration had previously backed Israel’s goal of annexing the West Bank.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 when it was captured from Jordan in the six-day war.
In August, Israel approved a long-delayed settlement project that would effectively sever the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem, bisecting the territory and further undermining hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued a warning to Israel on Wednesday against annexing the West Bank, describing the rise in settler violence in the region as a “threat to peace” and lawmakers’ preliminary vote to extend sovereignty in the occupied territory. “”.
Just one week after Donald Trump pushed through a deal to end a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza, Israel’s parliament on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that would apply Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, effectively annexing land that Palestinians desire for a state.
“Potentially threatening for the peace deal” were annexation moves, Rubio told reporters. Given that they are a democracy, people will cast ballots and adopt these stances. At the moment, however, we believe that it could be detrimental. “”.
The preliminary passage of the bill has embarrassed Benjamin Netanyahu, who had earlier urged lawmakers to postpone its presentation during US vice-president JD Vance’s visit in an attempt to maintain the precarious ceasefire in Gaza. However, the bill still needs to pass multiple rounds of approval before it can become law. Washington has stated time and again that annexing the West Bank would be forbidden.
In September, Donald Trump told reporters at the White House, “I will not permit Israel to annex the West Bank.”. “That won’t take place. “.”.
Rubio remarked of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel, “I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we can be supportive of right now.”.
Shouting broke out during the vote in the Knesset, defying Netanyahu’s warnings, which included urging members of his Likud party to abstain. Avi Maoz, a member of the far-right Noam party, stated that Israelis had an obligation to “settle in the land of Israel” and that “the time has come to apply sovereignty.”.
In the past, some members of Trump’s administration supported Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. The situation has changed, though, as a number of Arab and Islamic nations have expressed their adamant opposition to any attempt to increase Israeli sovereignty in the occupied Palestinian territories. Washington is looking to these nations to help finance and staff a postwar stabilization force in Gaza.
The West Bank was taken from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and has been under Israeli occupation ever since. Subsequent administrations have since attempted to firmly establish Israeli sovereignty over the region, partly by designating large portions of it as “state lands,” which forbid private Palestinian ownership.
Israel’s far-right government, the most extreme in its history, has accelerated efforts to annex the West Bank—approving dozens of new settlements across the occupied Palestinian territories in an unprecedented expansion—since Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, which set off Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
A long-delayed settlement project that would essentially divide the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem and further erode aspirations for a viable Palestinian state was approved by Israel in August.
A defense ministry committee approved 3,400 homes in the so-called E1 area, despite international opposition that has halted construction for more than 20 years. Announcing the plans in the summer, Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister, who resides in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim—which is illegal according to international law—said that the concept of a Palestinian state was “being erased overall.”.
Settler violence against Palestinians has escalated dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza, coinciding with political attempts to annex Palestinian territory.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces or settlers have killed over 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the UN, and thousands more have been forcibly displaced due to settler attacks, restrictions on their freedom of movement, and home demolitions.
757 settler attacks that caused fatalities or property damage occurred in the first half of 2025, according to the UN, a 13% increase over the same period the previous year.
Rubio responded, “We’re concerned about anything that threatens to destabilize what we’ve worked on,” when asked about the rise in violence committed by radical Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. “.”.
A masked Israeli settler beat a 55-year-old Palestinian woman over the head on Monday while she was harvesting olives, sending her to the hospital. In the attack’s video, the man hits her with a stick until she passes out, then strikes her again while she is lying on the ground, still.
Israel’s Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday about opening the Gaza Strip to foreign media, and the state was given 30 days to change its stance in light of the ceasefire.
Since the start of the war, Israel has virtually prohibited journalists from entering Gaza.
