Türkiye on Wednesday decried Israeli Knesset’s preliminary passage of two bills to annex the occupied West Bank and Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc in East Jerusalem.
The Knesset approved the two bills in a preliminary reading on Wednesday. Both drafts still must pass three additional readings to become law.
“Israeli parliament’s step toward annexation of occupied West Bank is contrary to international law,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It’s completely null and void.”
The Palestinian group Hamas also rejected the Israeli bills, calling Israel's efforts to annex the occupied West Bank "null and void."
"The occupation's frantic attempts to annex the West Bank are illegal and invalid. They do not change the fact that the West Bank is Palestinian land under history, international law, and the 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice," it said in a statement.
The Knesset vote came despite opposition from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said last month that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It also came as U.S. Vice President JD Vance is currently visiting Israel.
Annexing the West Bank would effectively end the possibility of implementing a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as outlined in U.N. resolutions.
Israeli attacks have escalated across the West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 1,056 Palestinians, injuring 10,300, and detaining over 20,000 others, according to Palestinian figures.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In a separate statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Türkiye’s solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle and vowed to support efforts to effectively implement international law and establish justice.
The statement came after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled earlier Wednesday that Israel is obliged under the Geneva Convention to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by third states and impartial humanitarian groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), to ensure that sufficient aid reaches the Gaza Strip.
The ICJ's advisory opinion reveals the legal violations committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of its international commitments, the ministry stated.
The ICJ's advisory opinion also demonstrated that Israel's continued violations of its international obligations, its crimes against the Palestinian people, its obstruction of humanitarian aid, and its targeting of U.N. facilities and personnel constitute a challenge to the international legal order, it stressed.
The court's ruling confirms the unlawfulness of the Israeli government's attempts to undermine the authority, activities, and presence of the U.N. and the UNRWA in the occupied territories, the ministry stated.
Türkiye has contributed to the process before the ICJ through written and oral statements, it highlighted.
