The UN's human rights chief on Wednesday accused Israel of taking steps that risk entrenching de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Washington.
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Israeli government's decision was “another step” towards consolidating the "unlawful annexation" of Palestinian territory.
“If these decisions are implemented, they will undoubtedly accelerate the dispossession of Palestinians and their forcible transfer, and lead to the creation of more illegal Israeli settlements,” Mr Turk said.
He warned that the international community is “witnessing rapid steps to change permanently the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory, stripping its people of their lands and forcing them to leave”.
On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet approved measures allowing Jewish Israelis to buy land in the West Bank and expanding Israeli reach into areas currently administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The decision came ahead of Mr Netanyahu’s White House meetings, during which he is expected to urge President Donald Trump to widen talks with Iran beyond its nuclear programme and include missile development and regional security threats.
One US official said Mr Trump “does not support Israel annexing the West Bank” and is focused on maintaining regional stability, while stopping short of directly criticising the Israeli government’s latest moves.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war and has maintained military control over the territory since. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts across the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed, alongside about three million Palestinians.
Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.
The Israeli decision also stripped the Palestinian Authority of its planning and building powers in parts of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarchs, Mr Turk said, and established Israeli administrative control over Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, to "accelerate settlement expansion".
Israeli settler violence and harassment in the occupied WestBank displaced nearly 700 Palestinians in January, the UN said last week, the highest rate since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.
