JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to push for annexing the occupied West Bank when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Israeli media said on Tuesday.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Netanyahu said in closed-door talks that he will reintroduce the annexation of the West Bank to the agenda of his government when Trump assumes office.

On Monday, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he instructed Israel’s Settlement Division and Civil Administration to initiate the groundwork for infrastructure to “apply sovereignty” in the West Bank.

“We were on the verge of applying sovereignty over settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) before the Biden administration,” Smotrich said. “Now, it’s time to act.”

In 2020, Netanyahu planned to "annex" the illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, based on the so-called Middle East peace plan announced by Trump in January of the same year.

Territories Netanyahu planned to annex at that time constitute about 30% of the West Bank. His plan, however, wasn't launched under international pressure and lack of US approval.

International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal.

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank due to Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 43,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

At least 780 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 6,300 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar