Israeli far-right minister says Netanyahu and Trump agreed to West Bank settlement plan
Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump had agreed to revive the contentious E1 settlement scheme – although there was no immediate confirmation from either leader.
It comes after we reported earlier that Smotrich announced plans to begin construction on a settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.
Standing at the site in Ma’ale Adumim, Smotrich said:
Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods.
Smotrich told Reuters the plan would go into effect on Wednesday, without specifying what would happen that day.
Most of the international community considers all settlements illegal under international law, a position backed by multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to halt settlement activity.
In June, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another far-right minister who advocates settlement expansion, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Key events
The day so far
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Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump had agreed to revive the contentious E1 settlement scheme – although there was no immediate confirmation from either leader. It comes after we reported earlier that Smotrich announced plans to begin construction on a settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.
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Qatar, Iraq and Jordan have all issued strong condemnations of recent statements concerning the occupied West Bank. In a statement from Doha on Thursday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns” Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s approval of plans to construct a settlement that would separate East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, calling it “a blatant violation of international legitimacy, particularly United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334”.
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Israeli advocacy group Peace Now has condemned plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, the group said. The plans, announced by Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, approve tenders for more than 3,000 housing units in the controversial E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank.
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In an act of international journalistic solidarity, the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) staged a demonstration in Stockholm, protesting the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. The demonstration follows am Israeli airstrike on Sunday that claimed the lives of four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelance media workers sheltering near a tent outside the Al-Shifa Hospital.
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The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has just issued its daily death toll. It says 54 people have been killed and 831 injured in the past 24 hours, adding that some victims remain under the rubble or on roads that ambulance and civil defence crews are unable to reach.
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Mossad spy chief David Barnea is visiting Qatar to revive Gaza peace talks, two Israeli officials told Reuters on Thursday. The visit follows a reported expression of eagerness by Hamas for a swift return to Gaza ceasefire negotiations during a meeting with Egypt’s intelligence chief in Cairo.
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Italy’s defence ministry says it has completed the largest medical evacuation from Gaza since January last year, flying 31 children and 83 accompanying relatives to Ciampino, Milan and Pisa overnight. The patients and their families have been admitted to Italian hospitals for medical care and specialist treatment. With this mission, Italy says it has now taken in more than 180 children from Gaza, along with 580 people in total, for treatment.
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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied accusations that Israel is committing genocide or intentionally starving civilians in Gaza, saying such claims are “false”.
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More than 100 international NGOs have accused Israel of using humanitarian aid as a weapon in Gaza, saying most major agencies have been unable to deliver a single truck of supplies since early March.
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In a statement carried by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Health Organisation says medical supply entry into Gaza remains “difficult and ever changing” despite the delivery of 80 trucks of supplies since June 25, when a suspension of more than three months was lifted.
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Riot police at Greece’s largest port, Piraeus, cordoned off an area around a cruise ship early Thursday to prevent several hundred protesters from approaching the vessel. The Crown Iris, carrying Israeli tourists, has faced demonstrations at Greek islands and mainland ports along its route, some of which have led to clashes with police.
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Human Rights Watch has described as “abhorrent” reports that the Israeli government is in talks with five countries – Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan and Libya – about taking displaced Palestinians from Gaza. Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported on Wednesday that such discussions were taking place.
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The head of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) says he is working to reinstate a documentary about the October 7 attacks after its removal from the schedule sparked a public outcry in Israel. Cameron Bailey, TIFF’s CEO, said the Canadian film The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue was initially withdrawn due to issues surrounding “legal clearance of all footage”.
Palestinians struggle to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
We are starting to see responses to Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich saying prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump had agreed to revive the contentious E1 settlement scheme.
Eropean Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said during a press briefing:
The EU rejects any territorial change that is not part of a political agreement between involved parties.
So annexation of territory is illegal under international law.
Meanwhile, Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said the move showed that Israel “seeks to appropriate land owned by Palestinians in order to prevent a two-state solution”.
Qatar, which has mediated between Hamas and Israel in efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, condemned Smotrich’s actions as a “blatant violation of international law”.
Caolán Magee
Human Rights Watch has described as “abhorrent” reports that the Israeli government is in talks with five countries – Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan and Libya – about taking displaced Palestinians from Gaza.
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported on Wednesday that such discussions were taking place.
Milena Ansari, Israel and Palestine assistant researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian:
Hearing Israeli officials flaunt abhorrent plans to escalate forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza should trigger outrage in the international community.
Instead of standing beside a government whose Prime Minister is wanted for atrocity crimes by the International Criminal Court, states should make clear their categorical opposition to such actions and take concrete actions to prevent the extermination of Palestinians.
Anything less will only magnify the possibility they could be held complicit in Israel’s crimes of forced displacement.
The report came a day after the Associated Press said Israel had discussed sending Palestinians to South Sudan.
The Israeli government has previously called for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza amid the ongoing war.
Riot police at Greece’s largest port, Piraeus, cordoned off an area around a cruise ship early Thursday to prevent several hundred protesters from approaching the vessel.
The Crown Iris, carrying Israeli tourists, has faced demonstrations at Greek islands and mainland ports along its route, some of which have led to clashes with police.
At Piraeus, near Athens, demonstrators held flares and waved Palestinian flags behind a cordon formed with riot police buses.
Protest organisers, citing online posts from travellers, claimed off-duty Israeli soldiers were among the passengers.
“They are unwanted here and have no business being here,” protest organiser Markos Bekris said. “The blood of innocent people is on their hands, and we should not welcome them.”
Greece remains a popular holiday destination for Israelis, but the ongoing war on Gaza, and global attention on the widespread destruction and severe food shortages, has sparked hundreds of anti-Israel protests in Athens and other Greek cities and towns.
Opposition parties have called on the conservative government to halt commercial and military cooperation with Israel.
In an act of international journalistic solidarity, the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) staged a demonstration in Stockholm, protesting the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
The demonstration follows am Israeli airstrike on Sunday that claimed the lives of four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelance media workers sheltering near a tent outside the Al-Shifa Hospital.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 192 journalists and media workers have been killed since the onset of the war in late 2023.
In a statement shared on social media, SJF decried the ongoing violence against press freedoms as “unacceptable and must come to an end,” adding: “the message is simple – stop killing our colleagues”.
Qatar, Iraq and Jordan have all issued strong condemnations of recent statements concerning the occupied West Bank.
In a statement from Doha on Thursday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns” Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s approval of plans to construct a settlement that would separate East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, calling it “a blatant violation of international legitimacy, particularly United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334”.
Iraq’s foreign ministry also “strongly condemns” remarks by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week in which he said he felt “very attached” to the vision of a so-called “Greater Israel”. The ministry described the comments as “a blatant provocation and a clear violation of the sovereignty of states, a breach of international law, and the charter of the United Nations”.
Jordan’s foreign ministry criticised Smotrich’s announcement that he intends to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project linking Jerusalem to Maale Adumim. Its spokesperson, ambassador Sufyan Qudah, said the plan and other “illegal Israeli measures” were “a blatant violation of international law”.
My colleague Peter Beaumont his written a fuller report on an earlier blog post on Aid groups saying that Israel’s new registration rules “are weaponising aid”:
More than 100 aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have accused Israel of dangerously “weaponising aid” in its application of new rules for registering groups involved in delivering humanitarian assistance.
The letter represents the latest broadside from the international aid community against Israel after the EU, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop “famine” spreading in the Gaza Strip.
Mossad spy chief David Barnea is visiting Qatar to revive Gaza peace talks, two Israeli officials told Reuters on Thursday.
The visit follows a reported expression of eagerness by Hamas for a swift return to Gaza ceasefire negotiations during a meeting with Egypt’s intelligence chief in Cairo.
Israeli far-right minister says Netanyahu and Trump agreed to West Bank settlement plan
Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump had agreed to revive the contentious E1 settlement scheme – although there was no immediate confirmation from either leader.
It comes after we reported earlier that Smotrich announced plans to begin construction on a settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.
Standing at the site in Ma’ale Adumim, Smotrich said:
Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods.
Smotrich told Reuters the plan would go into effect on Wednesday, without specifying what would happen that day.
Most of the international community considers all settlements illegal under international law, a position backed by multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to halt settlement activity.
In June, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another far-right minister who advocates settlement expansion, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
