The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf, condemned the Israeli calls to annex the West Bank, describing them as inciting and confirming the ongoing occupation’s approach to destabilizing security and stability.

Al-Hajraf stated that these calls “reflect the occupation’s insistence on undermining peace prospects and its blatant defiance of international covenants,” urging the international community to take immediate and deterrent measures to stop these dangerous practices.

Earlier, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Tel Aviv’s intention to annex 82% of the West Bank territory, emphasizing the need to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to quickly make a historic decision to impose sovereignty over all open areas in Judea and Samaria.

Since the start of the Gaza massacre on October 7, 2023, Israel has intensified crimes in the occupied West Bank, including home demolitions, displacement of Palestinians, land confiscations, and accelerated settlement expansion. The Israeli army and settlers have killed at least 1,017 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and arrested over 18,500, according to Palestinian data.

With American support, Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza that has resulted in 63,746 Palestinian deaths, 161,245 injuries, mostly women and children, over 9,000 missing persons, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that killed 367 Palestinians, including 131 children.

For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine and lands in Syria and Lebanon, refusing to withdraw or allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.