The US Vice President, JD Vance, condemned this Thursday, October 23, the debates in the Israeli Parliament on annexation projects in the occupied West Bank, after similar criticism from the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, expected in Israel during the day.
During JD Vance’s visit to Israel on Wednesday, the Knesset voted to consider two bills aimed at expanding Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
For US officials, such a project undermines their efforts to consolidate the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after two years of devastating war, triggered by a Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel, that will remain our policy,” JD Vance said at the end of his visit to Israel. “If it was a political measure, it was a very stupid political measure and I personally take it as an insult.”
A threat to the ceasefire
Before leaving Washington this Wednesday to head to Israel, Marco Rubio estimated that such a project would “threaten” the ceasefire in Gaza and would be “counterproductive.” “This is not something we can support at this time,” added the Secretary of State, who is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.
In late September, President Donald Trump said he “would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. No, I will not allow it. It will not happen.” This project has the support of the Israeli extreme right.
Several Trump administration officials came to Jerusalem this week to try to cement the ceasefire that went into effect on October 10 and was based on a plan by Donald Trump. The deal between Israel and Hamas appeared to falter Sunday following deadly violence in Gaza and exchanges of accusations of truce violations.
“We have a very, very difficult task ahead of us”
On Wednesday, following an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, JD Vance acknowledged that the next steps of the deal, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza, would be “very difficult.”
“We have a very, very difficult task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas and rebuild Gaza, improve the lives of the people of Gaza, but also ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” he said.
The first phase of the agreement provides, in addition to the ceasefire, the release of all hostages, living and dead, held by Hamas since the October 7 attack, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the influx of humanitarian aid for the Gazan population.
Hamas released all the live hostages on October 13, that is, 20. It was also due to return on this date the 28 bodies of the captives it held, but so far it has only returned 15, citing difficulties in finding the remains in the territory devastated by the Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack.
Israel returned 195 Palestinian bodies in exchange. Israeli forces have withdrawn from parts of Gaza, but still control and besiege around half of the Palestinian territory. Humanitarian aid remains insufficient according to the UN.
The foreign press disappointed
The next phases of the Trump plan provide for a new Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force and, in particular, the reconstruction of the territory. JD Vance ruled out deploying US ground troops to Gaza and said he was looking for countries willing to contribute to this military effort.
Hamas has so far refused to consider disarmament and its fighters have redeployed to areas of Gaza after the truce, clashing with armed groups, some of which it accuses of “collaborating” with Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu wants to expel Hamas from Gaza, where the movement took power in 2007.
The October 7 attack killed 1,221 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to a report prepared by AFP based on official data. The Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation left 68,280 dead in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, and caused a humanitarian disaster.
The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem (FPA) on Thursday expressed its disappointment after the Israeli Supreme Court postponed for 30 days its decision on the FPA’s request for independent access to Gaza that it has been demanding for two years. The Israeli authorities, who control all access to Gaza, have prevented journalists from foreign media from independently entering the devastated territory for two years.
Source: BFM TV
