Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to bills that would impose Israeli law across the occupied West Bank, annexing Palestinian territory in violation of international law.
The vote was the first of four needed to pass the law and it coincided with the visit of US Vice President JD Vance to Israel, a month after President Donald Trump said that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
During a preliminary reading, lawmakers voted in favour of examining two pieces of legislation, which means they will be brought forward for further readings in parliament.
The first bill proposing annexing Maale Adumim - a large Israeli settlement home to some 40,000 people east of Jerusalem - passed by 31 votes to nine.
The second to annex the entire West Bank narrowly passed by 25 votes to 24.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party did not support the legislation following opposition from US president Donald Trump.
"I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank," Trump told reporters at the White House in September. "It's not going to happen."
Likud criticised the vote, calling it "another provocation by the opposition aimed at damaging our relations with the United States".
Far-right members in Netanyahu's coalition - including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism faction - voted in favour of the bill.
"Mr Prime Minister. The Knesset has spoken. The people have spoken," Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posted on X.
"The time has come to impose full sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria -- the inheritance of our ancestors -- and to promote peace agreements in exchange for peace with our neighbours with strength," he said, using the Israeli Biblical term for the West Bank.
Annexation commands huge support in the Knesset, with lawmakers voicing overwhelming support of the move in a symbolic vote in July.
'Invalid and illegitimate'
Palestinian factions condemned the vote.
In a statement, the Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry said it "strongly rejects the Knesset's attempts to annex Palestinian land".
"The ministry emphasised that the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, constitute a single geographic unit over which Israel has no sovereignty," it said, as reported by Palestinian official news agency Wafa.
Hamas said the bills reflected "the ugly face of the colonial occupation" and called them "invalid and illegitimate".
The International Court of Justice in 2024 ruled that Israel's occupation is illegal under international law and should be ended as soon as possible.
Netanyahu himself has not been explicit about annexation since a past election pledge was scrapped in 2020 in favour of normalising ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The UAE, the most prominent Arab country to establish ties with Israel under the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords, last month warned that annexation of the West Bank was a red line for the Gulf state.
(Agencies and TNA staff)