JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of Israel’s intention to annex the occupied West Bank, local media said Sunday.

Israeli news outlet Walla, citing sources familiar with the matter, said Saar posted Rubio during their meeting in Washington on Wednesday about Israel’s preparations to annex the occupied territory in the coming months.

The broadcaster said a consensus has been reached within the Israeli government over the move, but there are disagreements on the timing of the announcement.

Israel’s Knesset (parliament) has already begun discussing the West Bank annexation in the last meeting, the sources said.

On Aug. 20, Israel approved a major settlement project, called E1, which aims to split the occupied West Bank into two parts, cutting off the northern cities of Ramallah and Nablus from Bethlehem and Hebron in the south and isolating East Jerusalem.

The international community, including the UN, considers the Israeli settlements illegal under international law. The UN has repeatedly warned that continued settlement expansion threatens the viability of a two-state solution, a framework seen as key to resolving the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, at least 1,016 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Health Ministry.

In an advisory opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.