JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has summoned a meeting of top Israeli planning officials for next week to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, his office said Thursday.
A brief statement said he had convened a session of the Supreme Planning Council for Monday “to approve new programs for the planning and sale of housing units in all parts of the (West Bank).”
It did not give details.
The Hebrew-language statement said the move was “part of the policy of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria,” the Hebrew biblical term for the West Bank.
Israel occupied the territory in the Six-Day War of 1967. Today more than 600,000 Jewish settlers live there and in annexed east Jerusalem among 2.9 million Palestinians, with frequent outbreaks of violence between the sides.
The settlements are deemed illegal under international law and widely seen as a main obstacle to peace.
The central committee of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party on Sunday passed a resolution urging its MPs to work for annexation of the West Bank settlements.
Taking such a measure could effectively end prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as there would be little area left for a Palestinian state.
But a significant number of members of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition say that is precisely what they are seeking and openly oppose a Palestinian state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday harshly condemned the Likud vote and criticized the US for its silence.
“We hope that this vote serves as a reminder for the international community that the Israeli government, with the full support of the US administration, is not interested in a just and lasting peace,” he said.
The prime minister says he still supports a two-state solution with the Palestinians, although he has also pushed for Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, Israel advanced plans for 6,742 settlement units in the West Bank in 2017, the most since 2013.
Israeli right-wing politicians have seized on support from US President Donald Trump to promote measures seen as further damaging remaining hopes for a two-state solution.
Israel minister calls for more settlement approvals
Israel minister calls for more settlement approvals
President Trump says he’s ‘working hard to end’ Sudan war
LONDON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is “working hard” to end the war in Sudan.
“I’m working hard to end that war. We’re very close to getting it done. That'll be number nine, if we don’t get Russia-Ukraine first. But we're working hard to end that whole war. We're very close to doing it. We've almost done it ” the president said at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC.
Trump first said he would start “working” on the war in Sudan last November, after Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked him to help end the conflict during a visit to the US.
“His majesty would like me to do something very powerful having to do with Sudan,” Trump said at the US-Saudi Investment Forum.
“It was not on my charts to be involved in, I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control,” he added.
“But I just see how important that is to you, and to a lot of your friends in the room, Sudan. And we’re going to start working on Sudan.”
Since its outbreak in April 2023, the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million.
