UN chief warns against Israeli annexation of Judea, Samaria

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that Israel may take advantage of Trump’s presidency to annex Judea and Samaria, hold Gaza Strip “in limbo” under de facto Israeli administration.

By World Israel News Staff

The United Nations secretary-general warned Wednesday that Israel may try to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria during President Donald Trump’s second term in office and could effectively maintain control over the Gaza Strip without formally annexing the territory.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed mixed feelings regarding the truce in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Hamas terror organization, saying he is currently “optimistic about the situation” while adding it is unclear if the ceasefire will hold through all three of its planned phases.

Guterres warned that Israel may keep Gaza in “limbo,” preventing the coastal enclave from either self-rule, control by the Palestinian Authority, or administration by an international force.

Furthermore, the secretary-general said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could return to his shelved 2019 sovereignty plan for Judea and Samaria.

“There’s a risk that Israel will feel this is the moment to annex the West Bank and keep the Gaza Strip in a state of limbo,” Guterres said.

On the eve of Israel’s second Knesset election in 2019, Netanyahu vowed that if elected again as premier, he would annex large swaths of Judea and Samaria, beginning with the Jordan Valley.

The plan was to have been integrated into the Trump administration’s Deal of the Century, which would have enabled Israel to apply sovereignty over all Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria in exchange for a commitment to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state if the Palestinian Authority adopted the Trump proposal.

In his address at Davos, Guterres also urged Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions,and “engage constructively” with Israel, the U.S., and moderate Arab states.

“The most relevant question is Iran and relations between Iran, Israel, and the United States,” he said.

“Here my hope is that the Iranians understand that it is important to once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons at the same time that they engage constructively with the other countries of the region.”