Israeli ministers call for West Bank annexation during settlement ceremony

Four senior Israeli ministers publicly called for the annexation of the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as Israeli military operations continued across the territory.

Defence Minister Israel Katz, Settlement Minister Orit Strook, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlau, reportedly made these calls as they inaugurated a new outpost in the Har Brakha settlement, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus.

They called for full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, something many far-right Israeli officials have called for repeatedly, including other extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Katz considered that settling in the West Bank was "Israel's line of defence".

He added that Israel would continue to strike what he claimed was "terrorism in northern Samaria", a Biblical term used by Israeli extremists to refer to the occupied Palestinian territory.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal. Annexation of occupied territory is explicitly prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and has been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, and most of the international community.

Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War and has continued to build and expand its settlements there deemed illegal under international law.

The West Bank is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority has limited governance over the territory.

Many Palestinians want it to be part of any future, sovereign state, including occupied East Jerusalem and the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Israel’s hardline government refuses the establishment of a Palestinian state.

More arrests

Separately, Israeli forces detained at least 20 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight Sunday-Monday, including a journalist and a woman.

A joint statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Club and the Prisoners' Affairs Authority said among those arrested were minors and former prisoners, adding that the arrests took place in various West Bank governorates.

The statement said Israeli forces have "continued their aggression in the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates in the northern West Bank since 12 January," adding that the army carried out 600 arrests in Jenin and 250 in Tulkarem, with some subsequently released.

Israeli military raids and settler attacks have spiked in the territory since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023. Over 950 Palestinians have been killed, more than 7,000 have been injured, and around 16,400 have been arrested since then in the West Bank.