Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley would be a "declaration of war" Gaza based Hamas said on Thursday as a UN envoy warned the move could fuel extremism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aims to table annexation plans from July 1, despite opposition from the Palestinians and much of the international community.
In a televised address, Hamas's military wing said such a move would prompt war with the Palestinians.
"The resistance considers the decision to annex the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to be a declaration of war on our people," said spokesman Abu Ubaida.
Gaza has been under a crippling Israel blockade since 2007, when the Hamas movement took control of the Palestinian enclave leading to a brief bloody fight to push the Fatah party out.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars in recent years, with the latest conflict in 2014 killing 2,251 Palestinians and 74 people on the Israeli side.
There are no official relations between the two sides and the Palestinian Authority, a separate administration based in the West Bank, last month cut its cooperation with Israel.
Israel's proposal to annex its settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley form part of a broader US peace plan published in January.
The proposals foresee the ultimate creation of a Palestinian state on the remaining West Bank territory and including the Gaza Strip.
The annexation of Palestine in pictures
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Palestinian protesters wave flags as Israeli troops take position during a protest against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah. Reuters -
Now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secured a new term in office, there’s little to prevent him from annexing large parts of the West Bank as early as this summer. AP -
An Israeli soldier stands guard during a tour made by Israeli parliament members in the Jordan Valley near the Jewish settlement of Maale Efrayim. Reuters -
Israeli soldiers take position as Palestinian demonstrators gather during a protest against expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. AP -
King Abdullah (r) of Transjordan on May 13, 1948 in Amman with Abed Al Rahman Azzam, the secretary general of the Arab League and Abd Al Elah Ibn Ali, the Prince Regent of Iraq, the day before the beginning of the first Arab-Israeli War. AFP -
Palestinians surrender to Israeli soldiers in June 1967 in the occupied territory of the West Bank after Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt and Syria and seized the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in Syria as well as the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. AFP -
A Palestinian child plays in a refugee camp in Jordan on June 23, 1967. AFP -
PLO chairman Yasser Arafat delivers a speech to the Palestine National Council meeting to make the historic proclamation of a Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied territories and to recognize Israel in the Palace of Nations conference hall on November 12, 1988, in Algiers. AFP -
US President Bill Clinton stands between PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzahk Rabin as they shake hands for the first time on September 13, 1993 at the White House. AFP -
Hussein Ibn Talal, King of Jordan and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin shake hands after they exchanged the documents of the Peace Treaty at Beit Gabriel conference centre on November 10, 1994 on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee. AFP -
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during the Palestinian leadership meeting and threatened to end security coordination with Israel and the United States, saying Israeli annexation would ruin chances for peace. AFP -
Houses in the Israeli settlement of settlement of Kedumim are seen in the foreground as part of the Palestinian city of Nablus is seen in the background (far left) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Reuters -
Israel's controversial concrete barrier (C) separating the Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov (foreground) in the northern part of east Jerusalem and the Palestinian area of al-Ram (background) in the occupied West Bank. AFP -
An Israeli activist holds a banner during a protest against the US peace plan for the Middle East, in front of the US ambassador's residence in Jerusalem, on May 15, 2020, as Palestinians commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the 1948 Nakba or "catastrophe". AFP -
A Palestinian shepherd tends to his camels on arid land considered to be in "Area C" (under Israeli security and administrative control), southeast of Yatta town in the southern West Bank district of Hebron. AFP -
A general view of the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh, as seen from the Palestinian village of Azmout near the West Bank City of Nablus. EPA -
The West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Michmash. AP
But the plan falls far short of Palestinian aspirations, with a state on reduced territory and without east Jerusalem as a capital.
Palestinian officials cut diplomatic relations with Washington in 2017, over its pro-Israel stance, and have rejected the US peace plan.
The United Nations has raised alarm bells in recent weeks over Netanyahu's intentions, warning they could do irrevocable damage to Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Speaking in Jerusalem on Thursday, the UN's Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said annexation may also fuel extremism.
If Palestinians "feel that there is no prospect of a peaceful resolution to the conflict, that only creates opportunities for radicals," he told journalists.
Mr Mladenov pointed to a "long litany of such developments" in the Middle East, referring to the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
He was speaking a day after a UN Security Council session in which Secretary General Antonio Guterres, as well as European and Arab powers, called on Mr Netanyahu to end his annexation ambitions.
They view the move as illegal under international law, although the US has broken with this consensus and said Israel has the right to decide.
While countries are yet to announce retaliatory measures, Mr Mladenov warned Israeli annexation could spark a regional conflict.
"Nobody wants another war, another flare-up of violence in the Middle East, and certainly not one that has such a potential to ignite conflict way beyond its borders," he said.
