While the plan offers several concessions to Palestinians, it also carries provisions favorable to Israel — including Hamas’ demilitarisation and programs to “de-radicalise” Gaza’s population.

Netanyahu, who said his speech was being partially broadcast on Israeli military loudspeakers in Gaza, vowed to "finish the job" against Hamas even as President Donald Trump said he thought he had sealed a deal on a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank to make statehood impossible.

Portugal was also to recognize Palestinian statehood, as Israel came under huge international pressure over the war in Gaza where the UN has declared famine and Israel continues to block aid.

The United Kingdom has historically been a staunch supporter of Israel but has shifted position as Israel has intensified the Gaza offensive triggered by Hamas's unprecedented 2023 attack.

"We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us," Netanyahu said at the event in Maale Adumim, an Israeli settlement just east of Jerusalem.

The extraordinary step further aligns President Donald Trump's administration with Israel's government, which adamantly rejects a Palestinian state and has sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with rival Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has approved the plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometre parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem, which will make the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12-square-kilometre parcel known as E1 just east of Jerusalem, but the plan had been stalled for years amid international opposition.

President Donald Trump has expressed displeasure with leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Canada for saying they plan to recognize a Palestinian state in September, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.

The foreign ministers of 15 countries issued a joint statement following a conference in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed at reviving a two-state solution between Israelis and the Palestinians.

Jerusalem, Undefined - The US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has lashed out at France's advocacy for recognition of a Palestinian state, saying that if it supported such an outcome it could "carve out a piece of the French Riviera" and create one. France is co-chairing with Saudi Arabia this...

Paris, France - The Cannes film festival said Wednesday that the screening of a documentary about Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna at the event next month would honour her work after the "horror" of her death in an Israeli air strike last week. "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk"...

Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that "I would own it" and that there could be as many as six different sites for Palestinians to live outside Gaza -- under the plan which the Arab world has rejected.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it will not formalize ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established, after Israel's prime minister remarked that he thought normalisation with the Gulf kingdom was "going to happen". "Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state...

The plans were unveiled last week in a coordinated announcement by their prime ministers, with formal recognition to take place in all three countries on Tuesday. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will give an address at 0630 GMT before his cabinet meets to adopt a decree recognizing Palestinian statehood.

The agreement signed with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, managing director of the Abu Dhabi government-controlled fund Mubadala, opens "a new era of economic cooperation" in the burgeoning sector, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. "France has chosen to be the leading country in Europe on AI, and for that, we...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia has called for a "real commitment to a two-state solution that is a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state". At the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development aimed at dialogues to tackle the most pressing geopolitical, social...

Paris, France -- Israel's almost six-months-old war in Gaza since the October 7 attack has revived calls for Palestinians to be given a state of their own. Spain's left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced plans to soon recognize a Palestinian state, breaking with other Western powers which have long argued...

There was "virtual unanimity for the two-state solution as the only possible solution," Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told journalists at the close of a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the world's biggest economies. "The only reason (Vieira) didn't simply say 'unanimity' is that not every speaker addressed the...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia on Tuesday explicitly conveyed to the United States its stance on diplomatic relations with Israel, making it clear that such ties will not be established without significant progress on the Palestinian issue. The Kingdom insists on the recognition of an independent Palestinian state within...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week said Israel would not get "genuine security" without a "pathway to a Palestinian state." Israel's relentless air and ground offensive has killed at least 24,762 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, young children and...

Blinken "underscored the United States' position that all Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel should be consistently conveyed to the Palestinian Authority in accordance with prior agreements," Miller said. Israel has for years withheld part of the funds, over issues including payments to Palestinian prisoners and more recently the Gaza...

As Israel grapples with the surprise Hamas action and global community gauges economic ramifications, the future of Israel's relations with its neighbors hangs in the balance.

As Israel grapples with the surprise Hamas action and global community gauges economic ramifications, the future of Israel's relations with its neighbors hangs in the balance.

For the past 10 days, various officials have suggested the deal - which US then-president Donald Trump scrapped in 2018 - might not be renewed until at least mid-November, a deadline that Lapid has tried to use to push the West to impose a tougher approach in their negotiations.