Palestinian officials have sent top mediators, including the UN, a response to the US peace plan that was released this year and allows Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
The proposal demands the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, independent and demilitarised, and some minor border changes.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said it was sent "a few days ago" to the UN, US, EU and Russia, which were mediating in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Palestinian text included possible land swaps that were to be agreed to by the two future states.
US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which was announced in Washington at the end of January, includes the annexation by Israel of its settlements and of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.
More than 450,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements that are deemed illegal under international law, alongside 2.7 million Palestinians.
Washington's proposals provided for the creation of a Palestinian state, but on reduced territory and without Palestinians's core demand of a capital in east Jerusalem.
The plan was rejected in its entirety by the Palestinians and top officials have refused to engage with the Trump administration.
Mr Shtayyeh said the US plan was an “existential threat” to diplomatic efforts for an agreement where Israel and Palestine could establish two states side by side.
Palestinian leaders have declared statehood in the past, but the territories remain occupied by Israel due to a lack of full international recognition.
-
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
The EU was highly critical of Mr Trump’s peace plan and is demanding that Israel abandon its annexation ambitions, to be revealed after July 1.
Analysts say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a narrow window of opportunity to implement Mr Trump's deal before the US presidential election in November.
Mr Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has opposed the plan and could stop it if he wins the election.
EU member states are considering options such as economic sanctions or recognition of Palestinian statehood to dissuade Israel from going ahead with the plan.
They are also looking at what measures to take if Israel were not deterred, diplomats say.
"We want Israel to feel international pressure," Mr Shtayyeh said in Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based.
"For the first time the European political allies are discussing sanctions against Israel because we asked for them."
On Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will travel to Jerusalem, where he will meet Mr Netanyahu and the country's foreign and defence ministers.
Annexation is expected to be high on the agenda, with Israel intent on toning down Europe's response to the move.
Mr Maas will not travel to Ramallah but is due to hold a video conference with Mr Shtayyeh from Amman, where he will meet the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi.
In recent days, demonstrations against the annexation have increased in the West Bank and in Israel.
But they did not draw large crowds on the Palestinian side.
"The anger is there, the dissatisfaction is there, the frustration is there and all that is a recipe for more problems," Mr Shtayyeh said.
He said the Palestinian Authority, led by president Mahmoud Abbas, wanted to avoid widespread disruption.
An Israeli poll last week showed most Israelis feared annexation would spark a Palestinian uprising.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian government announced on Tuesday that it was ending its two-month coronavirus lockdown in the West Bank, after a steady decline in new cases.
