Photo: REUTERS/Esa Alexander
The Israeli cabinet of ministers unanimously approved a declaratory decision on the impossibility of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state and against international pressure on the settlement issue. This was stated on 18 February on the page of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The document has only two paragraphs. In the first, Israel "categorically rejects international demands" for a permanent settlement with the Palestinians and claims that this can only be achieved through negotiations.
"The settlement, if reached, will be exclusively through direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions," the document states.
The second paragraph confirms that Israel opposes unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The day before, on 17 February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was only possible through direct dialogue between the two sides. Negotiations between the parties to the conflict, he said, should take place without preconditions.
He also stressed that Israel will continue military action in the Gaza Strip until all the stated goals of the war are achieved.
Earlier, on February 16, Netanyahu declared that the Jewish state would continue to fight the conflict with the Palestinian Hamas movement until complete victory on all fronts.
In January, Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog suggested that Hamas must be eliminated to "secure a better future for the Palestinians".
Situation The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of 7 October 2023, when Hamas fired a massive rocket barrage from the Gaza Strip into Israel and also attacked border areas in the south of the country and took hostages. On the same day, Israel launched retaliatory strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians seek to return the border between the two countries to the way it existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses to accept its terms.
izvestia/gnews.cz-RoZ_07
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