By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is opposed to Israel annexing the occupied West Bank.
Asked during an interview with the US-based news outlet Axios about recent steps approved by Israel’s security cabinet for the territory, Trump declined to address specifics but said “I am against annexation.”
“We have enough things to think about now. We don’t need to be dealing with the West Bank,” he added.
On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet ordered the repealing of a law barring the sale of Palestinian land to Jews in the West Bank, the unsealing of land ownership records, and transferring building permit authority in a Hebron settlement bloc from the Palestinian municipality to Israel’s civil administration.
The measures also expand Israeli oversight and enforcement into areas classified as Area A and Area B, citing alleged violations related to unlicensed construction, water issues and damage to archaeological and environmental sites.
Over the past three years, the Israeli government has reviewed plans for building around 50,000 settlement units in the West Bank, in addition to the confiscation of 60,000 dunams (14,826 acres) of land since the beginning of the war with Hamas in October 2023.
The International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal in a landmark opinion in July 2024 and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.