US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned Israel against annexing the occupied West Bank after the Knesset gave initial approval. He said the plan threatens the Gaza peace deal.
Israeli MPs voted on Wednesday to advance two bills on annexation. One bill applies Israeli law to the area, a move tantamount to a grab of land that Palestinians want for a state.
The vote was the first of four needed to pass the law, and it coincided with a visit by US Vice President JD Vance to Israel. US President Donald Trump said last month that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
“The President has made clear that it is not something we can be supportive of right now,” Mr Rubio said as he boarded a plane for a visit to Israel.
Annexation moves are “threatening for the peace deal”, he added.
“They’re a democracy, they’re going to have their votes and people are going to take these positions,” he said.
“But at this time, it’s something that we … think might be counterproductive.”
Asked about increased violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, Mr Rubio said: “We’re concerned about anything that threatens to destabilise what we’ve worked on.”
Mr Rubio is the latest high-ranking US visitor to Israel following Mr Vance’s trip this week. The US is the primary military and diplomatic supporter of Israel, and Mr Rubio, until recently, had steered clear of criticising annexation moves championed by Israel’s far right.
Several Arab and Islamic states, which the US is courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza, have warned that annexation of the West Bank would be a red line.
The party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not support Wednesday’s vote, which was put forth by MPs outside his ruling coalition and passed by a vote of 25-24 out of 120 legislators. A second bill by an opposition party proposing annexation of the Maale Adumim settlement passed by 31-9.
The bills would require a lengthy legislative process to become law.
Members of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition have been calling for years for Israel to formally annex parts of the West Bank territory to which the country claims biblical and historical ties.
The UN and most of the international community regard the territory as occupied. Israel argues that this cannot be the case in legal terms because it is on disputed lands.
The UN’s highest court in 2024 said that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
Mr Netanyahu’s government had been considering annexation as a response to a string of its western allies recognising a Palestinian state in September, but appeared to scrap the move after Mr Trump’s objection.
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Reacting to Wednesday’s vote, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel has no sovereignty over the West Bank or Gaza.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms that the occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, is a single geographical unit over which Israel has no sovereignty,” it said.
The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in some areas of the West Bank.
Hamas said the Israeli votes reflected “the ugly face of the colonial occupation”.
“We affirm that the occupation’s frantic attempts to annex West Bank lands are invalid and illegitimate,” it said.
Mr Netanyahu has not been explicit about annexation since a past election pledge was scrapped in 2020 in favour of normalising ties with the UAE and Bahrain through the Abraham Accords.
The UAE, the most prominent Arab country to establish ties with Israel under the accords brokered by Mr Trump, has warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line.
AP/Jide Johnson.