ROME: Italy, France, Britain and Germany on Friday urged Israel to stop expanding its settlements in the occupied West Bank, arguing it was &quot;undermining stability&quot; and prospects for a two-state solution. The statement was welcomed by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/palestinian-authority-condemns-east-jerusalem-evictions" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Palestinian Authority</a>&nbsp;as an &quot;important step&quot;. &quot;We call on the government of Israel to end its expansion of settlements and administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence and investigate allegations against Israeli forces,&quot; said the countries in a joint statement. Noting that the situation in the West Bank had &quot;deteriorated significantly&quot; in the past few months, the countries said settler violence towards Palestinians was at &quot;unprecedented levels&quot;. &quot;The policies and practices of the Israeli government, including a further entrenchment of Israeli control, are undermining stability and prospects for a two-state solution,&quot; the statement added. The countries condemned Israel&#39;s E1 settlement plan &ndash; a new construction project expected to build some 3,400 housing units in the occupied West Bank over 12 square kilometers&ndash; as a &quot;serious breach of international law&quot;. &quot;Businesses should not bid for construction tenders for E1 or other settlement developments,&quot; the countries said. &quot;They should be aware of legal and reputational consequences of participating in settlement construction including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law.&quot; The statement also called on Israel to lift its financial restrictions on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian economy. They &quot;strongly oppose those, including members of the Israeli government, who argue for annexation and forcible displacement of the Palestinian population&quot;, the statement added. &#39;Important&#39; step The Palestinian Authority has called the joint statement &quot;an important step in the right direction&quot;. It called for &quot;serious and effective mechanisms to translate these important positions into concrete steps&quot; to put pressure on Israel. Since Israel began its siege of Gaza in October 2023, near-daily violence has also rocked the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/peace-activists-gather-ahead-of-jerusalem-day-rallies-known-for-violence" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">West Bank</a>, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The joint statement came at the end of a tense week in European-Israeli relations following the publication of a video that revealed the harsh treatment of European activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla while in Israeli custody. Israel&#39;s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, published the video that showed activists forced to kneel with their foreheads to the ground and their hands tied. Italy and Spain later called on the EU to sanction Ben Gvir, while Ireland urged the EU to take action against Israel over the activists&#39; treatment, according to a leaked letter seen by AFP. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, summoned Israel&#39;s most senior diplomat in Britain following what it called the &quot;inflammatory video&quot;.

A general view of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar is pictured in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, against the backdrop of Israeli settlement of Mishor Adumim, on May 20, 2026. (AFP)

Middle East

France, Britain, Germany and Italy urge Israel to halt West Bank settlement expansion, calling it illegal and harmful to peace prospects, while the Palestinian Authority welcomes the statement as a significant diplomatic step.

Italy, France, UK, Germany urge Israel to end settlement expansion

RAMALLAH: The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/hamas-to-surrender-arms-to-palestinian-authority-if-israeli-occupation-ends" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Palestinian Authority</a>&nbsp;has condemned the recent eviction of multiple families from their homes in east Jerusalem and urged the international community to take &quot;firm measures&quot; to halt the displacements. Several families were removed from their homes in the neighborhood of Silwan in Israeli-occupied&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/israel-begins-demolitions-at-unrwa-headquarters-in-east-jerusalem" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">east Jerusalem</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday, AFP journalists saw. Silwan has for decades been the target of a policy allowing Jews who lost property before the establishment of Israel in 1948 to claim it. Israeli rights group B&#39;Tselem said the evictions were the start of &quot;a large wave of displacement affecting around 2,200 people&quot; and were part of a policy aimed at &quot;Judaising the neighborhood.&quot; In a statement released late on Friday by official news agency WAFA, the PA&#39;s foreign ministry &quot;condemned the escalation by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/five-killed-in-occupied-east-jerusalem-attack" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Israeli occupation</a>&nbsp;authorities of forced eviction measures.&quot; It said 15 families had been evicted from the hilltop neighborhood south of Jerusalem&#39;s Old City. It also called on the international community to take &quot;firm and more decisive steps to prevent the continuation of forced displacement against the Palestinian people.&quot; Israeli authorities have evicted many Palestinian families from the area in recent years, while further families await the enforcement of eviction orders. Hundreds of settlers, whose presence is illegal under international law, live among around 50,000 Palestinians in Silwan. Their presence in the neighborhood dates back to the 1980s. Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967, later annexing it and declaring it part of its undivided capital, a move not recognized by the UN or most of the international community. Palestinians aspire to make it the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinians perform Friday prayer on the streets in East Jerusalem on March 27, 2026 as the Israeli forces continue to impose restriction to Palestinians from entering the Dome of the Rock of Masjid Al-Aqsa for Friday prayers, in Jerusalem. (AFP)

Several families were removed from their homes in the neighborhood of Silwan in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem on Wednesday, AFP journalists saw.

Palestinian Authority condemns East Jerusalem evictions

JERUSALEM:&nbsp;A senior Israeli far-right minister vowed to encourage &quot;emigration&quot; from the Palestinian territories, despite mounting criticism of recent measures tightening Israel&#39;s control over the occupied West Bank. Since last week, Israel has approved a series of initiatives backed by far-right ministers to consolidate control over the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/palestinian-child-dies-after-stepping-on-mine-in-west-bank" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">West Bank</a>, including in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, in place since the 1990s. &ldquo;We will eliminate the idea of an Arab terror state,&rdquo; far-right <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/dozens-of-un-member-states-condemn-israeli-west-bank-measures" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich</a> said at an event organized by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday. &quot;We will finally, formally, and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria,&quot; he said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank. &quot;There is no other long-term solution,&quot; added <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/israel-accused-of-move-expanding-jerusalem-borders-for-first-time-since-1967" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Smotrich</a>, who himself lives in a settlement in the West Bank. &lsquo;Colonization 2030&rsquo;Smotrich was speaking at a vineyard near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, where he presented what he called &quot;Colonization 2030&quot;, a campaign initiative ahead of national elections scheduled for later this year. In addition to the finance portfolio, Smotrich serves on Israel&#39;s security cabinet, which takes key decisions regarding the West Bank, making him a central figure in efforts to expand settlements there. The recently approved measures include launching a process to register land in the West Bank as &quot;state property&quot; and allowing Jewish Israelis to purchase land directly. Until now, land acquisitions for settlers were typically carried out through intermediary companies. The new measures repeal a decades-old law that barred Jews from directly purchasing land&nbsp;in the West Bank. &quot;This will allow Jews to purchase land in Judea and Samaria exactly as they do in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem,&quot; Smotrich said last week. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Global outrage&nbsp;</h2>The steps are also set to increase Israel&#39;s control in parts of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority currently exercises power. Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into areas A, B and C -- under Palestinian, mixed and Israeli governance respectively. The West Bank would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state, but many on Israel&#39;s religious right view it as Israeli land. The Oslo Accords were signed with the stated aim of paving the way for an independent Palestinian state. Israeli NGOs have also raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem&#39;s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967. The planned development, announced by Israel&#39;s Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The new measures have triggered widespread international outrage. De facto annexationOn Tuesday, the UN missions of 85 countries condemned the measures, which critics say amount to de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory. &quot;We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel&#39;s unlawful presence in the West Bank,&quot; they said in a statement. &quot;Such decisions are contrary to Israel&#39;s obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed. &quot;We underline in this regard our strong opposition to any form of annexation.&quot; US President Donald Trump has previously voiced opposition to annexation of the West Bank, but has stopped short of directly criticizing the latest Israeli measures. &lsquo;Stable West Bank&rsquo;&nbsp;&quot;As the president has clearly stated, he does not support Israel annexing the West Bank,&quot; a Trump administration official said earlier this month. &quot;A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration&#39;s goal to achieve peace,&quot; the official said. Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law. Around three million Palestinians live in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The current Israeli government, considered one of the most right wing in the country&#39;s history, has fast-tracked settlement expansion. It has approved a record 54 settlements in 2025, according to Israeli NGO Peace Now.

In addition to the finance portfolio, Israeli minister Smotrich serves on Israel's security cabinet, which takes key decisions regarding the West Bank, making him a central figure in efforts to expand settlements there.

Top Israeli minister pushes for 'emigration' of West Bank, Gaza Palestinians

Web Desk

The measures, announced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, include canceling decades-old prohibitions on land sales to Jewish citizens in the West Bank, declassifying land registry records to facilitate land acquisition, and expanding Israeli enforcement powers into Areas A and B — zones that under the Oslo Accords fall under Palestinian Authority administration.

New Israeli West Bank settlement measures draw global backlash

ISLAMABAD: Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.&nbsp;A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. &quot;I&#39;m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we&#39;re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,&quot; said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer. He told AFP he hoped the security force would be &quot;independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives&quot;. &quot;We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,&quot; said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP. Israel&#39;s war on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory&#39;s health ministry that the UN considers reliable. &#39;Protecting the dream&#39; The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of &quot;protecting the dream of creating&quot; a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state. A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training. During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements &mdash; including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas&#39;s Fatah &mdash; agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers. Egypt would train half of them while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007. Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements. A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the movement supported &quot;the details regarding security and management of the Gaza Strip&quot; agreed during the talks. The subject was also addressed in US President Donald Trump&#39;s peace plan, which led to last month&#39;s fragile Gaza ceasefire, and was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution. Europe plays a part The plan notably authorises the creation of an international force that would be responsible for securing border areas and demilitarizing Gaza. The European Union also wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip under a scheme similar to one it already runs in the West Bank, an EU official told AFP. The EU has financed a police training mission in the West Bank since 2006, with a budget of around $15 million. But many details remain up in the air. A Hamas official questioned to AFP the possibility of an agreement with Israel on the precise details of a police force in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#39;s government opposes any role for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in Gaza after the war ends. AFP journalists have regularly observed that Hamas maintains armed men in Gaza to ensure traffic flows and to mediate disputes between residents, effectively providing a form of law enforcement. Hamas has said it no longer wants to govern Gaza but added that it does not intend to disappear and remains a central part of Palestinian political life. On the thorny issue of disarmament, Hamas has said it is not opposed to handing over part of its arsenal, but only as part of a Palestinian political process.

Egypt is training Palestinian police officers for a post-war Gaza security force, supported by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, with EU involvement in training plans.

Egypt trains hundreds of Palestinians for future Gaza police force

Reuters

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority is ready to work with US President Donald Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on their effort to consolidate the Gaza ceasefire and start rebuilding, a senior Palestinian official told Blair on Sunday. Trump&#39;s plan for ending the Gaza war holds out the prospect of the Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and led by President Mahmoud Abbas, eventually taking control of Gaza, but only after it completes reforms. Abbas lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007. Trump&#39;s proposal says Hamas must end its rule of Gaza and foresees the territory being run by a Palestinian technocratic committee supervised by an international body chaired by him and including Blair. Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said he had met Blair to discuss the day after in Gaza and making Trump&#39;s plan for &quot;stopping the Gaza war and establishing lasting peace in the region a success&quot;. &quot;We have confirmed our readiness to work with President Trump, Mr. Blair and the partners to consolidate the ceasefire, the entry of aid, the release of hostages and prisoners, and then start with the recovery and reconstruction,&quot; Sheikh wrote on X. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Gaza being run by the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinians collect aid supplies from trucks that entered Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip October 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Trump's plan for ending the Gaza war holds out the prospect of the Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and led by President Mahmoud Abbas, eventually taking control of Gaza, but only after it completes reforms. 

Articles tagged with "Palestinian Authority"

Italy, France, UK, Germany urge Israel to end settlement expansion

Palestinian Authority condemns East Jerusalem evictions

Top Israeli minister pushes for 'emigration' of West Bank, Gaza Palestinians

New Israeli West Bank settlement measures draw global backlash

Egypt trains hundreds of Palestinians for future Gaza police force

Palestinian Authority ready to help Trump's Gaza effort succeed, says official