Trump says he “will not authorize” Netanyahu to annex the West Bank

President Donald Trump said that he would not allow Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the West Bank occupied by Israeli.

Speaking before the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday, the American president told journalists at the oval office: “I will not authorize Israel to annex the West Bank … that will not happen.”

Trump, who will meet Netanyahu on Monday, also said that a Gaza agreement was “close enough”.

Israel is faced with increasing global pressure to end the war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank in the West Bank while a wave of Western states officially recognizes an independent Palestinian state. The far -right Israelis see annexation as a way to stop this perspective.

Ultranationalists in the Netanyahu power coalition have repeated the calls to Israel to annex the West Bank, which is part of the Palestinian territories, purely and simple.

The United Kingdom and Germany say they have warned Israel against the annexation, while UN secretary general António Guterres told the UN on Monday, he would be “morally, legally and politically intolerable”.

Trump told journalists from the oval office on Thursday that he spoke in Netanyahu as well as other leaders of the Middle East.

“We are close enough to make an agreement on Gaza, and maybe even peace,” said Trump.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly via a video link Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he was ready to work with world leaders to implement a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians announced by France on Monday.

Abbas, 89, was excluded by the United States to go to New York to appear in person.

He thanked the countries that had recently recognized a Palestinian state in a wave of statements that started with Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Portugal on Sunday, followed by France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and Danmark.

The United States is currently opposed to recognizing Palestine, saying that such a decision is a reward for Hamas.

“Hamas will have no role in playing in governance,” said Abbas in his speech. He also called on a Palestinian state to assume “complete responsibilities” for the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal and connect it to the West Bank occupied by Israeli.

Trump met in the United Nations on Tuesday with the leaders of the key Arab and Muslim nations who warned him of the consequences if Israel has advanced the annexation.

“I think that the President of the United States very well understands the risks and dangers of the annexation in the West Bank,” said Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Bin Farhan, journalists.

Wednesday morning, Israel closed the only passage to cross between the West Bank occupied by Israeli and neighboring Jordan, preventing more than two million Palestinians from accessing the outside world.

The closure occurred a few days after two Israeli soldiers were killed near the crossing by a Jordanian shooter, who was killed on the scene.

In Gaza, more than 80 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed by Israeli fires on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City, local hospitals said.

The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,419 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Ministry of Health managed by the territory, including more than 18,000 children.

In August, the integrated classification of the food security phase (IPC), a body supported by the UN, said that more than half a million people across Gaza faced “catastrophic” conditions characterized by “famine, destitution and death”. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that famine takes place in Gaza.

A United Nations commission of inquiry judged that Israel had committed a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, in a report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel has categorically rejected as “distorted and false”.

Israel is under increasing pressure to end war and occupation.

In addition to more countries recognizing a Palestinian state, the European Commission has unveiled plans to restrict trade with Israel and impose sanctions on the extremist ministers of its government, which – in the event of adoption – would be the most difficult EU in the war in Gaza.

This week, Microsoft cut certain services to a unit of the Ministry of Israel of Defense after a survey found that its technology had been used to carry out mass monitoring on the inhabitants of Gaza.

But Netanyahu called on Israel to adopt increased self -sufficiency.