Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Thursday that there would be no Palestinian state, speaking at a signing ceremony for a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
“We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said at the event in Maale Adumim. “We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security… We are going to double the city’s population.”
His announcement drew condemnation, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying the settlement would effectively cleave the West Bank in two and pose an “existential threat” to a contiguous Palestinian state.
Separately, an official has said an Israeli attack that targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar this week will not change the Palestinian group’s terms for ending the conflict in Gaza, Reuters reports.
In a televised address, Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said the strike targeted the group’s negotiating delegation while they were discussing a new ceasefire proposal delivered by the Qatari prime minister just a day earlier.