‘I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,' says Donald Trump

Declaration comes two days after the US President met Arab leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

His comments came two days after he met Arab leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. I will not allow it. Not going to happen,” Mr Trump said in the Oval Office.

UNGA latestSudan's transitional PM vows to fight on until paramilitary forces defeated

Read More

"It's time to stop now," he continued, apparently referring to the war in Gaza.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the UN on Friday, and will meet Mr Trump at the White House on Monday.

The US President presented a 21-point plan to end the Gaza war to Arab leaders on Tuesday. It includes a pledge that Israel will not annex the occupied West Bank and that it will freeze building new Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, US and international sources have told The National.

The plan includes the release of all remaining hostages and provides for a long-term truce in Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and Israel's gradual withdrawal from the strip. Under the proposal, Hamas's leaders would be allowed to leave Gaza and live in exile abroad.

The plan would also see Israel allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, where starvation is widespread among its estimated two million residents, with pockets of famine.

Palestinians injured in the almost two-year Gaza war will be allowed to leave the devastated territory to receive medical care abroad, along with civilians who wish to leave.

There was no immediate comment from Israel or Hamas on the plan. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said it could only move forward if Arab states formally sign on to it.

Mr Barrot said the plan has been in the works for months, drawing on input from European allies and “ideas that all of us have been putting together for past months and years for what a day-after plan would look like”. He said the plan “requires the Arab countries to sign, to endorse it, to be ready to contribute to it”.

US President Donald Trump with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday. Mr Erdogan was at the earlier Arab leaders' meeting with Mr Trump. Bloomberg

Mr Netanyahu has been coming under growing pressure from extremist right-wing members of his government to annex the West Bank, or at least large parts of it, and give Jewish settlement proponents a free hand to expand.

Mr Trump, who met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday, told reporters that “we're close to getting some kind of a deal [on Gaza] done”.

“I have to meet with Israel,” he said at the White House. “I think we can get that one done. I hope we can get it done. A lot of people are dying, but we want the hostages back.”

Hamas has repeatedly said it is not willing to disarm unless it is as part of a comprehensive peace deal, although it has suggested that it could become a solely political force and stay out of Gaza's postwar governance and reconstruction.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said in a social media post on Wednesday that the Trump plan was an “important foundation that can be built on”. He did not elaborate but appeared to suggest that Egypt had some reservations.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said a post-war administration in Gaza should be run by a temporary, non-partisan committee working with the Palestinian Authority until a handover of full control is possible.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have been trying for months without success to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Sources said the Trump plan also provided for the reconstruction of Gaza, mainly with funds provided by Arab states, and the policing of the territory by an international force that includes US and Arab troops.

Israel has occupied the West Bank for decades and there are fears it could move to formally annex the Palestinian territory. AFP

The sources said Arab nations, including Egypt, were reluctant to be part of the disarmament of Hamas or policing Gaza, as their participation could pull them into inter-Palestinian fighting.

“The Americans and the Egyptians have opened channels to discuss the plan in detail,” said one of the sources.

Hamas is believed to be holding about 48 hostages, of whom 20 are thought to be alive.

The Gaza war was sparked by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that killed 1,200 people. The militants also took 240 hostages.

Israel's response has been a relentless military campaign that has killed more than 65,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health authorities, displaced most of the territory's inhabitants and reduced most built-up areas to rubble.

News of Mr Trump's plan broke as the Israeli military pressed on with a major air and ground offensive on the Palestinian territory's main urban centre, Gaza city, in what it claims is a bid to root out Hamas.

Adla Massoud contributed to this report from the UN.