Trump says Israel will "lose all US support" if it annexes the West Bank.
New explosions in southern Gaza cast doubt on the fragile truce, but no one has yet accused her of breaking it.
WashingtonDonald Trump has delivered one of his strongest messages yet to Netanyahu, warning him that if Israel decides to annex the West Bank, it would mean losing "the support of the United States." "Israel would lose all the support of the United States if this were to happen," the president said in an interview published in the magazine Time This Thursday and was recorded on October 15. The warning comes amid the United States' diplomatic deployment to Israel to try to maintain the Gaza truce, facilitated by Trump's peace plan. Earlier this week, Vice President J.D. Vance landed in the Middle East, along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has played a key role in the negotiations and also has business dealings in the region. On Wednesday night, before leaving for Tel Aviv as reinforcements, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also warned Israel against occupying more Palestinian territory, as this could jeopardize the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
In one way or another, all voices in Washington are echoing the president's warnings about the West Bank, given the international alert over the long-standing Israeli political moves to annex the occupied territories: on Wednesday, Parliament approved a preliminary motion to seize power. It is the first of four votes needed in the Knesset for the initiative to become law.
Rubio warned this Thursday that the Israeli Parliament's measures for the annexation of the West Bank threaten Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza and, therefore, the United States does not support it. "I want to say that this is a vote in the Knesset, but obviously I think the president has made it clear that this is not something that we would support right now, and we believe it is potentially a threat to the peace agreement," the secretary of state said.
Although Israel does not have the approval of parliament, for decades the reality on the ground in the West Bank has been far from resembling Palestinian sovereignty. Successive Israeli governments, both centrist and right-wing, have progressively expanded the presence of settlers in the territory. It is estimated that more than half a million settlers live there illegally, benefiting from networks of roads, water, and electricity that are off-limits to Palestinians, who denounce the constant violence and humiliation at the hands of the occupying forces. Since the start of the war in Gaza, attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have increased considerably. Settlers abuse Palestinian rights with the support of the Israeli army.
More bombs in the Gaza Strip
Rubio's trip is symptomatic of the precarious balance sustaining the truce between Israel and Hamas. In fact, this Thursday night, several gunshots and explosions shook the Strip again and further shook the agreement. Several witnesses reported hearing almost constant tank shelling in the eastern areas of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, and also in eastern Gaza City, in the north of the enclave. Gaza health officials said Israeli drones had killed a Palestinian in southern Gaza.
"The gunshots and explosions barely stopped until morning. My three children woke up and asked me if the war was back," Mohamed Abu Mansour, 40, a farmer living in the central Gaza Strip, told Reuters. "When will all this end and will we go back to our normal lives without fear?" he wondered. The Sheikh Nasser area is located next to the so-called "yellow line," the point to which Israeli troops have withdrawn within Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement and to which the Gaza population is prohibited from approaching.
The Israeli army has not commented on the events, but after dawn, witnesses reported that calm had returned to the Strip. The incident comes just days after a first temporary breach of the ceasefire last Sunday, when Israel accused Hamas of attacking its army and bombed several locations in the Strip. The attacks left around fifty dead, but a few hours later both sides claimed that the ceasefire was back in effect. Thursday's new attacks further highlight the fragility of the agreement signed in Egypt with Donald Trump's mediation, which, in theory, put an end to the bombing.