Netanyahu’s map showing West Bank as part of Israel ‘serious violation’: Palestine

By Awad Rjoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian presidency said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation of a map showing the West Bank as part of Israel is a “serious violation,” as it held the US responsible for the escalation.

“Netanyahu’s statements regarding the refusal to withdraw from the Philadelphia Corridor in the Gaza Strip, in addition to using a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupying state … represent a serious violation of all international legitimacy resolutions and signed agreements,” presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement, according to the Palestine news agency, Wafa.

He said the actions “clearly reveal Israel’s premeditated intentions to entrench the occupation and announce annexation and settlement."

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed in June a report by the New York Times on his efforts to annex the occupied West Bank.

Abu Rudeineh said, “This politically and militarily confused policy will not bring security or stability to anyone."

He warned about “the danger of Israeli attempts to destabilize the entire region through the continuation of the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip and the ongoing Israeli aggression aimed at destroying Palestinian cities, villages, and camps in the West Bank.”

“Palestine has been and will remain a priority on the regional and global agenda, and US efforts are not aimed at stopping the war on Gaza, but at containing the idea of a broader regional war."

Netanyahu was seen Monday presenting a map that erased the borders of the West Bank, which Palestinians view as a clear declaration of the annexation of the West Bank to Israel.

The Israeli army launched its largest military operation Wednesday in the northern West Bank in two decades, killing at least 33 victims and causing massive destruction to the area.

The offensive came amid rising tensions in the occupied territory as Israel pressed ahead with its brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7.

At least 685 people have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala