Palestinians have rejected Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call to annex the majority of the occupied West Bank, warning it would eliminate the possibility of a future Palestinian state and escalate regional tensions.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced Smotrich’s remarks as a “direct threat” to Palestinian statehood and described them as “public incitement” against the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian rights. It stressed that all unilateral Israeli measures to alter the status quo in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, were “illegitimate and void from the outset.” The Ministry urged the international community to impose sanctions to halt Israeli settlement expansion and occupation policies.

Hamas also condemned the proposal, warning it would invite “further challenges and confrontation” and urged Arab and Islamic nations to resist what it called Israeli “colonial policies” designed to erase the Palestinian cause.

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Smotrich argued that Israel should extend sovereignty to 82 percent of the West Bank, advocating “maximum territory and minimum (Palestinian) population.” Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet ministers, including Smotrich, on Thursday to review the plan, seen as a counter to European efforts to recognise a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York.

The United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, warned that annexation of the West Bank would be a “red line.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office also reiterated that annexation or settlement activity by Israel is “illegitimate, condemned, and unacceptable.”

Internationally, France, Britain, Australia, and Canada have recently pledged to support recognition of a Palestinian state, heightening Israeli concerns amid its ongoing war in Gaza.