Trump says Israel will lose US support if it annexes West Bank

United States President Donald Trump has told Time magazine that Israel would lose Washington’s crucial support if it annexes the occupied West Bank.

“It won’t happen,” Trump said in an interview published on Thursday. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now. We’ve had great Arab support.”

He added: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”

The West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured by the Israeli military during the Six-Day War in 1967. Since then, Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 7,00,000 Jews in the Palestinian cities, BBC reported. At least 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside the Jews.

Israeli troops regularly raid the West Bank and East Jerusalem and restrict the movement of the Palestinians. In the West Bank, the Israeli settlers exercise voting rights in Israeli elections, but their Palestinian neighbours have no say in them.

In addition to Gaza, Palestinians claim the two regions to build an independent state.

The annexation of the West Bank by Israel would eliminate hopes for a two-state solution, which seeks to establish a sovereign, viable and independent state of Palestine within recognised and mutually agreed borders, living alongside Israel in peace.

On Wednesday, the Israeli parliament narrowly passed a preliminary vote in support of annexing the West Bank, The Indian Express reported.

This had come while US Vice President JD Vance was visiting the country.

The bill was sponsored by parliamentary hard-liners and only one member of Netanyahu’s Likud party joined them, according to the newspaper. The bill is unlikely to pass the multiple votes required to become law.

A majority of Netanyahu’s coalition, including Likud members, support the annexation of the West Bank.

However, they have stepped back after Trump publicly opposed the move in September.

The United Arab Emirates, an important ally of the US and Israel in the peace process to end the war on Gaza, has also said that such an annexation would constitute a “red line”.

Before leaving Israel on Wednesday, Vance said: “If the Knesset [Israeli parliament] vote was a political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt. I personally take some insult to it. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

Separately, while speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump dismissed any effort by Israeli lawmakers to annex the West Bank, saying Tel Aviv was “not going to do anything with the West Bank”, Reuters reported.

“Don’t worry about the West Bank,” the news agency quoted Trump as saying. “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank.”

The developments came days after the US president and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye on October 13 signed a declaration as guarantors for bringing peace to Gaza at a summit in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

This had come hours after Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners under the first phase of a ceasefire agreement.

As part of the first phase of Trump’s peace plan, the militant group Hamas released all living Israeli hostages, while Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The first phase also includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Trump also said during the signing that a second phase of negotiations on a broader peace agreement was underway.

This came two days after the Israeli government, on October 10, said that the ceasefire agreement had come into effect. Earlier in the day, Israel’s Cabinet had approved the ceasefire agreement proposed by Trump, clearing the way to suspend hostilities in Gaza and free Israeli hostages held there.

However, discussions are ongoing on further steps of Trump’s 20-point peace plan. These include the matter of disarmament, the governance of Gaza or whether Hamas will demilitarise.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on besieged Gaza since then, leaving more than 67,000 persons dead.

In August, the United Nations formally declared a famine in northern Gaza. In September, a commission of inquiry set up by the UN said that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel called the report “distorted and false”, and demanded that the commission be immediately abolished.

Israel and Hamas had been holding ceasefire talks since July. Earlier efforts to reinstate a brief ceasefire that took effect in January had stalled due to disagreements between the two sides.

Trump’s proposal for Gaza

The peace plan announced by Trump on September 29 entails Israeli forces partially withdrawing from Gaza to prepare for hostages to be released.

Members of Hamas who “commit to peaceful coexistence” and agree to lay down arms will be given amnesty. Hamas members who want to leave Gaza will be given safe passage to receiving countries, as per the proposal.

The White House said that Israel will not annex Gaza and no one will be forced to leave the region.

The proposal also envisions a “Board of Peace” comprising international overseers led by Trump himself. The board will include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, although the proposal has not yet specified his role.

Gaza will be governed by a temporary “technocratic, apolitical” committee comprising Palestinians and global experts and the “Board of Peace” will oversee the committee’s functioning.

The proposal will require Hamas to have no direct or indirect role in governing Gaza.

Also read: With its silence on Palestinian statehood, US proposal deceives rather than bringing peace