Trump says a ceasefire agreement for Gaza is “pretty close” and blocks Netanyahu’s attempt to annex the West Bank

Trump says that Israel can’t take over the West Bank and suggests progress in the ceasefire in Gaza, but Netanyahu faces isolation from the rest of the world.

President Donald Trump of the US has taken a strong stand against Israel’s far-right goals by saying that he will not let Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu annexe the West Bank that Israel already occupies. The sudden action happened just a few days before Netanyahu was supposed to meet with the American leader in Washington. It shows how tense things are getting between Israel’s most important partner and the more extreme members of its government coalition.

Before Netanyahu’s speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Trump made his stance clear in a meeting with reporters at the White House. He made it clear, “I will not let Israel annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen.” Trump also said that talks to end the terrible war in Gaza were moving quickly forward. In the Oval Office, he told reporters, “We’re getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza and maybe even peace.”

These are some of the strongest words a US president has ever used against plans for outright annexation, which are backed by ultranationalists in Netanyahu’s government. These people think that expansion is a way to stop the creation of a Palestinian state. But pressure from around the world is growing. The UK and Germany have both told Israel not to do it, and António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the UN, has said that annexation is “morally, legally, and politically intolerable.”

Also, Arab leaders have shown a lot of worry. Senior figures from across the Middle East met with Trump this week outside of the UN to tell him of the bad things that would happen if Israel took over Palestinian lands outright. While they were meeting, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, said, “I think the president of the US understands very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank.”

Washington wouldn’t let Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas go to New York, so he gave his UN speech via video link. He was glad that many countries, including Canada, Australia, the UK, and Portugal, had recognized the Palestinian state recently. He promised that a future Palestinian authority would take full control of Gaza once Israeli troops left. Abbas said, “Hamas will not have a part in running the country.” “The Gaza Strip and the West Bank must be connected to a Palestinian state that takes full responsibility for them.”

A humanitarian disaster that is getting worse is happening at the same time as the diplomatic maneuvering. Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Wednesday killed more than 80 Palestinians, mostly in Gaza City. Among them were women and children. Following a killing in which two Israeli soldiers were killed by a Jordanian gunman, Israel closed the only crossing between the West Bank and Jordan on the same day. This cut off more than two million Palestinians from the rest of the world.

The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says that Israeli actions since October 2023 have killed more than 65,000 people, including more than 18,000 children. The UN has said that the living conditions for more than 500,000 people in Gaza are “catastrophic,” with death and famine. But Israel says it is not using food as a weapon.

Netanyahu is now facing a very tough political situation. The European Commission has announced plans to limit trade with Israel and punish extremist officials in Netanyahu’s government. If these plans are put into action, they would be the EU’s toughest response to the conflict so far. In the meantime, big businesses are also starting to pull away: This week, Microsoft cut off service to a part of Israel’s Ministry of Defense after proof showed that its technology had been used to spy on people in Gaza.

Still, the Israeli leader has been defiant, saying that Israel needs to become more self-sufficient because of what he calls aggressive moves by other countries. Trump’s clear rejection of annexation, on the other hand, and the possibility of a peace deal in Gaza make Netanyahu’s options less flexible.