ISTANBUL

The Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed a bill in its preliminary reading on Wednesday to annex the occupied West Bank.

A Knesset statement said the bill was approved in a preliminary reading “to apply the sovereignty of the State of Israel to the territories of Judea and Samaria (West Bank).”

The statement said 25 lawmakers supported the bill, introduced by Avi Maoz, leader of the far-right Noam Party, while 24 opposed it. The Knesset has 120 members in total.

The bill still must pass three additional readings to become law. It will now go to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for further deliberations.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth also reported that another bill to annex the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc in the occupied West Bank also passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset’s plenary session with 32 votes in favor and nine against. The bill was introduced by Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party.

The vote came despite opposition from US President Donald Trump, who said last month that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It also came as US Vice President JD Vance is currently visiting Israel.

Annexing the West Bank would effectively end the possibility of implementing a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as outlined in UN resolutions.

Israeli attacks have escalated across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 1,056 Palestinians, injuring 10,300, and detaining over 20,000 others, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark 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.