UN Security Council warns Israeli West Bank plans threaten Gaza truce
Members of the United Nations Security Council have called for the Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent and criticised Israeli efforts to expand control in the occupied West Bank as
Members of the United Nations Security Council have called for the Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent and criticised Israeli efforts to expand control in the occupied West Bank as a threat to prospects of a two-state solution.
The security council’s meeting came on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first Board of Peace gathering to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories.
The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia attended the Security Council’s monthly Mideast meeting after many Arab and Islamic countries requested last week that it discuss Gaza and the West Bank before some of them head to Washington.
“Annexation is a breach of the UN Charter and of the most fundamental rules of international law,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said. “It is a breach of President Trump’s plan and constitutes an existential threat to ongoing peace efforts.”
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During the meeting, Pakistan, the only country on the 15-member council that has accepted an invitation to join the Board of Peace, denounced Israel’s contentious West Bank settlement project as “null and void,” saying it constitutes a “clear violation of international law.”
“Israel’s recent illegal decisions to expand its control over the West Bank are gravely disturbing,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.
The UNSC members’ criticism comes after Israel launched a contentious land regulation process that will deepen its control in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said it amounts to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state, while outraged Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves an illegal annexation of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
The UN meeting also delved into the US-brokered ceasefire deal that took effect on 10 October, with Israeli and Palestinian civil society representatives briefing the council for the first time since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that launched the war.
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Bigger ambitions for Trump’s Board of Peace?
Speaking on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that attention was not on the UN session and that the focus of the international world would be on the Board of Peace meeting.
Sa’ar accused the council of being “infected with an anti-Israeli obsession” and insisted that no nation has a stronger right than its “historical and documented right to the land of the Bible.”
Initially set for yesterday, the high-level UN session in New York was rescheduled when Trump announced the board’s meeting would take place on the same day.
But it became clear that this would cause travel issues for diplomats who were planning to attend both, a growing sign of the potential for overlap between the UN’s most powerful body and Trump’s new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns that it may attempt to rival the UN Security Council.
US President Donald Trump signs the charter of his Board of Peace initiative at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
While more than 20 countries have so far accepted an invitation to join the board, close US partners, including France, Germany and others, have opted not to join yet and renewed support for the UN, which is also in the throes of major reforms and funding cuts.
