Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the parliamentary vote in favor of exerting Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank. On Wednesday, a group of opposition lawmakers advanced two preliminary bills to this effect.
The legislation “passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset by a narrow margin of 25 to 24, despite a direct request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw the proposal,” Israel’s Ynetnews reported.
Prime Minister Netanyahu slammed the opposition lawmakers for pushing the bills. “The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
“The Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee,” Netanyahu’s office observed. “Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere.”
The motion was passed by a vote of 25-24, but does not have sufficient support to win a majority in the 120-member House. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party did not back the legislation.
The opposition’s move is expected to lose in subsequent rounds of voting. “The bills must still pass three additional votes in the plenum and will now be referred to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for further consideration,” The Times of Israel noted. “It is highly unlikely that Netanyahu will allow either of the two bills to pass into law.”
The Jerusalem Post reports:
The recent Knesset vote on West Bank annexation was a “deliberate political provocation by the opposition” meant to incite conflict during US Vice President JD Vance’s visit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Thursday.The clarification came following Vance’s statement that US President Donald Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank, and it would not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli lawmakers to that end looked like a stupid “political stunt”.A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, won preliminary approval from Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday.Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said after Vance’s remarks that the government had not decided to bring the vote on annexation forward at this stage in order to ensure the success of Trump’s multi-stage Gaza plan. (…)
Right-wing rivals of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu narrowly passed a West Bank annexation bill in first parliamentary reading, drawing a US rebuke as the allies advance a Gaza peace plan whose regional support hinges on acknowledging Palestinian territorial claims.
The vote in the Knesset took place while Vice President JD Vance was in Israel, and came shortly before Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the country. In a recent interview given to Time Magazine, President Donald Trump strongly opposed any move by Israel to annex the West Bank.
Vice President Vance criticized the vote as a “political stunt.”
“I personally take some insult to it,” he told reporters at the end of his three-day visit to Israel. “The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
Secretary Rubio characterized the move as “counterproductive” for the ongoing Trump peace plan. “I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now. And we think it’s even threatening to the peace deal,” he cautioned.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the elimination of terrorists who kidnapped Noa Argamani, Avinatan Or, and Eitan Mor from the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023. These terrorists were taken out before the Gaza ceasefire came into effect on October 11.
The IDF and Shin Bet security agency “precisely eliminated eight terrorists who infiltrated Israeli territory and took part in the brutal massacre on October 7th, among them key terrorists involved in the murder and abduction of Israeli civilians,” the Israeli military disclosed on Thursday.
In addition to that, “[f]our terrorists responsible for the abduction of Israeli civilians and for holding Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity have been eliminated,” the statement added.
During the October 7 attack, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered 378 people and took 44 hostages at the Nova music festival. The tragedy had a silver lining when the IDF special forces, on June 8, 2024, rescued Noa Argamani and three other male hostages after 245 days of Hamas captivity.
The Ynetnews reported the details:
The IDF and Shin Bet security agency announced Thursday the targeted killings of several Hamas operatives in Gaza responsible for thekidnapping of Israeli hostages from the Nova music festival, including survivors Eitan Mor, Avinatan Or and Noa Argamani. The strikes also eliminated additional terrorists who infiltrated Israel and participated in the October 7 massacre.The statement revealed details of eight specific operations based on intelligence breakthroughs, focusing on the direct perpetrators of the mass abduction and killings.Arafat Dib, who kidnapped and held Eitan Mor during his captivity, was killed on May 30, 2025. Ahmad Ibrahim Rajab Sha’er, responsible for the abduction of Avinatan Or and Noa Argamani, was killed on August 22. Another terrorist involved in Or’s kidnapping, Ahmad Abu Marhil, was eliminated on March 26. A fourth operative, Odeh Alyan Ahmad Qaware’a, who also held hostages during the war, was killed on August 26.In addition, four Hamas fighters involved in the initial October 7 incursion into Israel were also killed. Bakr Mujida, who breached the Gaza border fence using a tractor, was killed on July 13. Firas Gharir Suilem al-Hadaf, who stormed Kibbutz Kissufim, was eliminated on August 23. Ibrahim Salah Rajab Bakhit and Muaid Mahmoud Muhammad Nofal, who also took part in the assault, were killed on July 6 and March 27, respectively.
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