U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticised Israel’s Parliament vote on West Bank annexation, saying it amounted to an “insult” and went against the Trump administration policies and efforts to ensure that the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza.

The Israeli Parliament on Wednesday (October 22, 2025) narrowly passed a symbolic preliminary vote in support of annexing the occupied West Bank — an apparent attempt to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while Mr. Vance was still in the country.

The bill was sponsored by parliamentary hard-liners, with only one member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party joining them. With Mr. Netanyahu opposed, the bill is unlikely to pass the multiple votes it requires to become law.

While many members of Netanyahu’s coalition, including the Likud, support annexation, they have backed off those calls since U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that he opposes such a move.

The United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. and Israeli ally in the push for peace in Gaza, has said any annexation by Israel would be a “red line.” On the tarmac of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport before departing Israel, Mr. Vance said that if the Knesset vote was a “political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.” “I personally take some insult to it,” Mr. Vance said. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state. Israeli annexation of the territory would all but bury hopes for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians — the hoped-for outcome by most of the world.

U.S. push toward peace

Earlier this week, Mr. Vance announced the opening of a civilian military coordination centre in southern Israel, where some 200 U.S. troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries planning the stabilisation and reconstruction of Gaza.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists at Joint Base Andrews late on Wednesday that he plans to visit the centre and appoint a Foreign Service official to work alongside the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper.

The U.S. is seeking support from other allies, especially Gulf Arab nations, to create an international stabilisation force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian force.

“We’d like to see Palestinian police forces in Gaza that are not Hamas and that are going to do a good job, but those still have to be trained and equipped,” he said.

Mr. Rubio, who is meeting with Mr. Netanyahu later on Thursday, has also criticised Israeli far-right lawmakers’ effort to push for annexation of the West Bank.

Israeli media referred to the nonstop parade of American officials visiting to ensure Israel holds up its side of the fragile ceasefire as “Bibi-sitting.” The term, utilising Netanyahu’s nickname of Bibi, refers to an old campaign ad when Mr. Netanyahu positioned himself as the “Bibi-sitter” whom voters could trust with their kids.

Gaza in a dire need for medical care

In the first medical evacuation since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Thursday the group has evacuated 41 critical patients and 145 companions out of the Gaza Strip.

In a statement posted to X, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on nations to show solidarity and help some 15,000 patients who are still waiting for approval to receive medical care outside Gaza.

His calls were echoed by an official with the UN Population Fund who, on Wednesday, described the “sheer devastation” that he witnessed on his most recent travel to Gaza, saying that there is no such thing as a “normal birth in Gaza now.” Andrew Saberton, an executive director at UNFPA, told reporters how difficult the agency’s work has become due to the lack of functioning or even standing health care facilities.

“I was not fully prepared for what I saw. One can’t be. The sheer extent of the devastation looked like the set of a dystopian film. Unfortunately, it is not fiction,” he said.

Mr. Saberton added that Palestinian women cannot get access to a hospital. “They often don’t even have access to a private space in a tent. We have stories of women giving birth, actually in the rubble, beside the road,” he said.

Court hearing on journalists’ access to Gaza

Separately on Thursday, Israel’s Supreme Court held a hearing into whether to open the Gaza Strip to the international media and gave the state 30 days to present a new position in light of the new situation under the ceasefire.

Israel has blocked reporters from entering Gaza since the war erupted with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Foreign Press Association, which represents dozens of international news organisations including The Associated Press, had asked the court to order the government to open the border.

In a statement after Thursday’s decision, the FPA expressed its “disappointment” and called the Israeli government’s position to deny journalists access “unacceptable.” The court rejected a request from the FPA early in the war, due to objections by the government on security grounds. The group filed a second request for access in September 2024. The government has repeatedly delayed the case.

Palestinian journalists have covered the two-year war for international media. But like all Palestinians, they have been subject to tough restrictions on movement and shortages of food, repeatedly displaced and operated under great danger. Some 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“It is time for Israel to lift the closure and let us do our work alongside our Palestinian colleagues,” said Tania Kraemer, chairperson of the FPA.

Published – October 23, 2025 08:47 pm IST

File picture of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
| Photo Credit: Reuters

 Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday (November 11, 2024) announced that 2025 would be the year when Israel will annex the occupied West Bank. The declaration came on a day when Saudi capital Riyadh under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman hosted the leaders of various Arab and Muslim countries who condemned the Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza Strip.

Mr. Smotrich’s announcement is not yet supported by a resolution of the Israeli government but gives a hint of the thinking in the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where Mr. Smotrich plays a supervisory role for the controversial expansion of settlements in occupied Palestinian areas.

On Monday, in a parliamentary meeting of his Religious Zionist Party which is a partner of PM Netanyahu’s government, Mr. Smotrich asked the Israeli government “to begin the professional and comprehensive staff work to prepare the necessary infrastructure,” to annex the West Bank which Israelis call as Judea and Samaria.

The remarks added to the backdrop in which Saudi Arabia held the extraordinary summit of the Arab and Islamic leaders in Riyadh. Addressing the meeting Prince Mohammed Bin Salman demanded an “immediate ceasefire” in the war in Gaza and called for an end to “massacres committed against the Palestinians and the Lebanese people.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for suspension of Israel from the UN and said Israel is committing “mass genocide”.

Palestinian Presidential spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the remarks made by Bezalel Smotrich, about imposing Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank confirm the Israeli government’s “intention” to go ahead with taking control of the West Bank by 2025.

The summit was attended by Egypt’s President El Sisi, Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif among others. Iran which is in a military rivalry with Israel did not send President Pezeshkian who cited “executive matters” while skipping the summit in Riyadh. The United Arab Emirates was represented at the summit by Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE who led a delegation to Riyadh.

The UAE which has diplomatic ties with Israel is in a unique position as it was the third Arab country — after Egypt and Jordan — to establish diplomatic relations with Israel during the first tenure of President Donald Trump in 2020. The relation has been considerably downplayed since Israel launched the war in Gaza but despite that the Emirates is one of the few places in the region where Israeli media including its pro-war channels are freely allowed to be aired providing the viewers with a window to the plans that the Israeli government is making for the West Bank, Gaza and the Lebanese territories. 

It is understood that any action on West Bank will have further regional implications as the region, which is the base of the Palestinian Authority, includes embassies and representations from many countries – including India – that recognise the statehood of Palestine forcing a new political and diplomatic reality. But the remarks of Mr. Smotrich have contributed to the regional discussion as the transition in Washington D.C. is being keenly watched here.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, said that annexation of West Bank was discussed last time during the first Presidency of President Trump. “The last time we discussed this issue was in the first term of President Trump,” he said. “And so let’s say that if it will be relevant, it will be discussed again also with our friends in Washington,” he was quoted by Reuters.