France asks Israel to drop West Bank annexation plans

Israeli troops shoot dead Palestinian in West Bank village

French President Emmanuel Macron asked Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from annexing Palestinian territory in the West Bank and elsewhere during a telephone call between the two leaders, his office said yesterday.

Macron “emphasised that such a move would contravene international law and jeopardise the possibility of a two-state solution as the basis of a fair and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, his office said in a statement.

The foreign ministries of France and Germany, along with those of Egypt and Jordan — the only Arab states to have peace deals with Israel — warned this week that any annexation could have “consequences” for relations.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian in the village of Kifl Haris, in occupied West Bank’s Salfit governorate, late on Thursday, claiming he was throwing firebombs at a guard post, but Palestinian officials said he was merely strolling through his village.

Salfit Governor Abdallah Kmail said one of the men, 29-year-old Ibrahim Abu Yakoub, was killed and the other was wounded in the leg and taken to a hospital.