U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday condemned Israel’s parliamentary vote to annex the occupied West Bank, calling the move “an insult.”
Vance said the move went against the Trump administration's policies and efforts to ensure that the U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza.
The Israeli parliament Wednesday narrowly passed a symbolic preliminary vote in support of annexing the West Bank.
The bill was sponsored by parliamentary hard-liners, with only one member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party joining them. With Netanyahu opposed, the bill appears unlikely to pass the multiple votes it requires to become law.
While much of Netanyahu's coalition, including members of his Likud Party, support annexation, they have backed off their calls since U.S. President Donald Trump said last month he opposes such a move.
The United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. and Israeli ally in the push to peace in Gaza, has said annexation would be a "red line."
On the tarmac of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport before departing Israel, 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," 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.
Earlier this week, Vance announced the opening of a civilian military coordination center in southern Israel, where some 200 U.S. troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists at Joint Base Andrews late Wednesday that he plans to visit the center 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 stabilization 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.
Rubio also criticized efforts by far-right politicians in the Israeli parliament to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
Trump "has made clear that's not something we'd be supportive of right now, and we think it's potentially threatening to the peace deal," he said.
The bill passed in a 25-24 vote. It is unclear whether the bill has the support to win a majority in the 120-seat parliament, and Netanyahu has the tools to delay or defeat it.
Vance also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the sprawling 12th-century basilica where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose again, in Jerusalem's Old City.
On Wednesday, he sought to ease concerns that the Trump administration was dictating terms to its closest ally in the Middle East.
"We don't want in Israel a vassal state, and that's not what Israel is. We want a partnership, we want an ally," Vance said, speaking beside Netanyahu, in response to a reporter's question about whether Israel was becoming a "protectorate" of the U.S.
Netanyahu, who will meet with Rubio later Thursday, expressed similar sentiments while acknowledging differences of opinion as they push forward the U.S.-proposed cease-fire agreement.
Israeli media referred to the nonstop parade of American officials visiting to ensure Israel holds up its side of the fragile cease-fire as "Bibi-sitting."
The term, utilizing Netanyahu's nickname of Bibi, refers to an old campaign ad when Netanyahu positioned himself as the "Bibi-sitter" whom voters could trust with their kids.
In other developments, the first medical evacuation since the cease-fire began on Oct. 10, the WHO on Thursday evacuated 41 critical patients and 145 companions out of the Gaza Strip.
In a statement posted to X, WHO chief 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 U.N. 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.
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.
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 cease-fire.
Israel has blocked reporters from entering Gaza since it launched the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents dozens of international news organizations, 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 genocidal 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. Over 250 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.
