Israel accelerates occupied West Bank annexation plans while preparing mass displacement from Gaza under a US-backed initiative
News Desk - The Cradle
The meetings, running through 30 July, were delayed last month due to the Israeli war on Iran. Dozens of foreign ministers are participating.
French President Emmanuel Macron had pledged to announce the recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, stating, “True to its historical commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine … Peace is possible.”
Macron’s remarks were condemned by Israeli officials, with Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin calling the move “a black stain in the history of France and direct assistance to terrorism,” adding, “The time has come to establish sovereignty over the West Bank as a historic and just response to the French decision.”
On 24 July, Israel’s Knesset voted to “apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley,” advancing a longstanding agenda to annex the occupied territory.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel had prepared an “escalation plan,” including the forced displacement of Khan al-Ahmar’s residents and banking disruptions across the occupied West Bank.
This follows a 21 February Knesset vote that formally outlawed any recognition of a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the move, calling it “a clear message to the international community.”
In the same session, far-right lawmaker Hanoch Milevetsky declared, “There will not be a Palestinian state alive, you will die, your children will die, your grandchildren will die, there will not be a Palestinian state.”
The French initiative comes amid growing outrage over Tel Aviv’s Gaza campaign, where Israel is advancing a multibillion-dollar plan to forcibly confine Palestinians to a southern enclosure.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has proposed building a so-called “humanitarian city” in Rafah, which would bar return to the north and be secured by Israeli forces.
Michael Sfard, a leading Israeli human rights lawyer, called the proposal “an operational plan for a crime against humanity.”
Holocaust historian Amos Goldberg described it as “a concentration camp or a transit camp for Palestinians before they expel them.”
According to Ynet, the Israeli army opposes the plan due to costs and operational risks, but Smotrich has already approved initial budget allocations.
A May poll published by Haaretz found that 82 percent of Israelis support the forced expulsion of Gaza’s population. Netanyahu has explicitly linked ending the war to the implementation of a US-backed initiative to permanently relocate Palestinians to third countries.
US security contractors have entered Gaza to oversee a new aid system tied to this relocation agenda. Trump, according to NBC News, is working to deport up to one million Palestinians to Libya.
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