Trump says he will not allow Netanyahu to annex West Bank as Gaza talks move forward
As world pressure grows over Gaza and the Palestinian state question, the U.S. signals opposition to annexation while noting progress on a Gaza deal; Abbas urges international partners to back a French peace plan.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, a pledge he delivered in the Oval Office ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations General Assembly. “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank ... It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters, adding that a Gaza deal is “pretty close.” He said he would meet Netanyahu on Monday as both leaders navigate renewed international pressure over Israel’s war in Gaza and the broader status of the Palestinian territories.
The comments come as Netanyahu’s ultranationalist coalition continues to press for annexation of parts of the West Bank, a move that many Western allies and international bodies warn could destabilize the region and complicate any potential Palestinian state. UK and German officials have warned Israel against moving forward, while UN Secretary-General António Guterres called annexation morally, legally and politically intolerable during remarks at the UN on Monday. In Washington, Trump also spoke with other Middle Eastern leaders and signaled that the talks on Gaza are advancing, saying, “We’re getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza, and maybe even peace.”
Abbas, speaking to the UN General Assembly via video link because he was barred from traveling to New York, said he was prepared to work with world leaders to implement a peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians announced by France earlier this week. He thanked those countries that have recently recognized a Palestinian state, noting a wave of declarations that began with Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Portugal on Sunday and continued with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and Denmark. The United States currently opposes recognizing a Palestinian state, arguing such a move would reward Hamas. “Hamas will not have a role to play in governance,” Abbas said, also calling for a Palestinian state to assume full responsibilities for the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal and to connect it with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In New York, Trump met Tuesday with leaders of several Arab and Muslim nations who warned against annexation and its potential consequences. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters that the U.S. understands the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank. The discussions underscored a broader international push to shape a resolution to Gaza and the future of Palestinian statehood amid a widening regional diplomacy effort.
On the ground, the crisis deepened as a cross-border closure added to humanitarian strain. Israeli authorities closed the sole crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan on Wednesday, halting the movement of more than two million Palestinians who depend on access to the outside world. The closure followed the killing of two Israeli soldiers by a Jordanian gunman at the crossing, an incident that underscored the volatility surrounding the West Bank and neighboring transit points.
In Gaza, casualties continued to mount. Local hospitals reported that more than 80 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City. The death toll from the war since it began in earnest after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel has surpassed 65,000 according to the Gaza health ministry, with more than 18,000 children among the dead. Israel’s 2023 campaign was launched in response to the Hamas assault that killed about 1,200 people and left 251 hostages in Gaza. Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated under a broad UN-backed assessment that more than half a million Gazans are living in “catastrophic” conditions characterized by starvation and destitution, a finding the International Committee of the IPC has highlighted. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that famine or starvation is taking place in Gaza.
A separate UN commission of inquiry has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, a determination that Israel’s foreign ministry rejected as distorted and false. The evolving debate over accountability and the path to peace comes as Europe debates its own response: the European Commission unveiled plans to restrict trade with Israel and to impose sanctions on extremist ministers in Israel’s government, a package that would mark the EU’s strongest response to the Gaza war to date if adopted. In the tech world, Microsoft disclosed it had cut off some services to a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defence after an investigation found its tools had been used to conduct mass surveillance on Gazan residents, illustrating the global dimensions of the conflict’s repercussions. Netanyahu, for his part, has continued to advocate for increased Israeli self-sufficiency in the face of these pressures and the broader regional upheaval.
The convergence of high-stakes diplomacy and grim on-the-ground realities underscores the fragile balance policymakers are attempting as they seek a path to de-escalation. With Netanyahu’s UN appearance and Trump’s assurances shaping the immediate political optics, the coming days will test whether a Gaza deal can be reconciled with a reality in which the West Bank annexation remains off the table for Washington, while international voices insist that any settlement must be tied to a durable Palestinian state and a credible end to hostilities that has eluded both sides for years.