Palestinians, Arab countries, and Israeli anti-occupation groups have condemned new steps approved by Israel's security cabinet for the occupied West Bank, saying they amount to de facto annexation.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the moves that would make it easier for Jewish settlers to take over Palestinian land. We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state, he said.
All settlements are seen as illegal under international law.
The measures - which are expected to be signed off by Israel's top military commander for the West Bank - aim to increase Israeli control over the territory in terms of property law, planning, licensing and enforcement.
They were announced three days ahead of a meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and US President Donald Trump in Washington.
Last year, settlements in the West Bank expanded at their fastest rate since monitoring began, the United Nations (UN) has said.
The new Israeli measures include cancelling a decades-old prohibition on the direct sale of West Bank land to Jews and declassifying local land registry records. Palestinians said they feared the changes would lead to more pressure on individuals to sell, as well as acts of forgery and deceit.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the measures dangerous and an open Israeli attempt to legalise settlement expansion, land confiscation and the demolition of Palestinian properties, even in areas under Palestinian sovereignty.
The Israeli NGO Peace Now said the cabinet's decision risked toppling the Palestinian Authority and involved cancelling agreements and imposing de facto annexation. It accused the Israeli government of breaking every possible barrier on the path to massive land theft in the West Bank.
In a strongly worded joint statement, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar condemned the announcement by Israel, describing it as accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people.
The prime minister, facing an election later this year, has declared he would never countenance the creation of a Palestinian state, which he said would be a security threat to his country.
