By RENATA BRITO and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticized Thursday Israel’s parliament vote on West Bank annexation, saying it amounted to an “insult.” Vance’s scathing remark came as his visit wrapped up Thursday and after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would now be traveling to Israel.
Vance’s words and the intense diplomacy indicate that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration was intent on keeping up the momentum on the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Speaking on the tarmac of Tel Aviv’s international airport before departing Israel, Vance said that if the Knesset vote was a “political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.”
“I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
An intense US push toward peace
Earlier this week, Vance announced the opening of a civilian military coordination center in southern Israel where some 200 U.S. troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza.
Rubio told journalists at Joint Base Andrews late Wednesday that he plans to visit the center and appoint a Foreign Service official to work alongside the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper.
The U.S. is seeking support from other allies, especially Gulf Arab nations, to create an international stabilization force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian force.
“We’d like to see Palestinian police forces in Gaza that are not Hamas and that are going to do a good job, but those still have to be trained and equipped,” he said.
Rubio also criticized efforts by far-right politicians in the Israeli parliament who on Wednesday took the symbolic step of giving preliminary approval to a bill that would give Israel authority to annex the occupied West Bank — a move the U.S. opposes.
Trump “has made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now, and we think it’s potentially threatening to the peace deal,” he said.
The bill passed in a 25-24 vote. It is unclear whether the bill has support to win a majority in the 120-seat parliament, and Netanyahu has tools to delay or defeat it.
Vance visits Holy Sepulcher
Meanwhile, Vance visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the sprawling 12th century basilica where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose again, in Jerusalem’s Old City.
He is then expected to meet Israel’s Defense Minister, Israeli military leaders and other officials at the army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.
On Wednesday, Vance sought to ease concerns that the Trump administration was dictating terms to its closest ally in the Middle East.
“We don’t want in Israel a vassal state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership, we want an ally,” Vance said, speaking beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to a reporter’s question about whether Israel was becoming a “protectorate” of the U.S.
Netanyahu, who will meet with Rubio as well, expressed similar sentiments while acknowledging differences of opinion as they push forward the U.S.-proposed ceasefire agreement.
Israeli media referred to the nonstop parade of American officials visiting to ensure Israel holds up its side of the fragile ceasefire as “Bibi-sitting.” The term, utilizing Netanyahu’s nickname of Bibi, refers to an old campaign ad when Netanyahu positioned himself as the “Bibi-sitter” whom voters could trust with their kids.
Palestinians in Gaza in dire need of medical care
In the first medical evacuation since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday they had evacuated 41 critical patients and 145 companions out of the Gaza strip.
In a statement posted to X, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on nations to show solidarity and help some 15,000 patients who are still waiting for approval to receive medical care outside Gaza.
His calls were echoed by an official with the U.N. Population Fund who, on Wednesday, described the “sheer devastation” that he witnessed on his most recent travel to Gaza, saying that there is no such thing as a “normal birth in Gaza now.”
Andrew Saberton, an executive director at UNFPA, told reporters how difficult the agency’s work has become due to the lack of functioning or even standing health care facilities.
“I was not fully prepared for what I saw. One can’t be. The sheer extent of the devastation looked like the set of a dystopian film. Unfortunately, it is not fiction,” he said.
Saberton added that Palestinian women cannot get access to a hospital. “They often don’t even have access to a private space in a tent. We have stories of women giving birth actually in the rubble, beside the road,” he said.
Court hearing on journalists’ access to Gaza
Separately on Thursday, Israel’s Supreme Court held a hearing into whether to open the Gaza Strip to the international media and gave the state 30 days to present a new position in light of the new situation under the ceasefire.
Israel has blocked reporters from entering Gaza since the war erupted on Oct 7, 2023.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents dozens of international news organizations including The Associated Press, had asked the court to order the government to open the border.
In a statement after Thursday’s decision, the FPA expressed its “disappointment” and called the Israeli government’s position to deny journalists access “unacceptable.”
The court rejected a request from the FPA early in the war, due to objections by the government on security grounds. The group filed a second request for access in September 2024. The government has repeatedly delayed the case.
Palestinian journalists have covered the two-year war for international media. But like all Palestinians, they have been subject to tough restrictions on movement and shortages of food, repeatedly displaced and operated under great danger. Some 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“It is time for Israel to lift the closure and let us do our work alongside our Palestinian colleagues,” said Tania Kraemer, chairperson of the FPA.
Lee reported from Washington. Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.
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