JERUSALEM

The US administration plans to present a draft resolution to the UN Security Council to oppose Israel's control over the occupied West Bank, Israeli media said on Tuesday.

Israel Hayom newspaper, citing a US source close to the Biden administration, said the draft will state that Israel's presence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and its Old City area, is in violation of international law.

The draft is currently being formulated by the US National Security Council, the source said, without specifying when it will be presented to the Security Council.

There was no US comment on the report.

The Biden administration is set to remain in power until President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 25.

Biden's move is similar to a decision by the Obama administration on Dec. 2016 to abstain from voting on a Security Council resolution that demands an immediate halt to all Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, enabling the resolution to pass.

On Nov. 11, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that next year, 2025, will see the application of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.

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

In July, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion 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