Abbas cuts security links with Israel

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has halted security co-ordination with Israel and the US, after years of threatening to do so, over Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plans to imminently annexe parts of the occupied West Bank.

Israel media this weekend confirmed security and intelligence co-operation had indeed stopped, along with civil ties between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli officials fear the halting of co-operation could lead to soaring violence and increased clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

Palestinian officials offered scant details but said Palestinian forces had begun withdrawing from ‘Area B’, which makes up 22pc of the West Bank.

The Palestinians hope the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza will make up their future state. However, a US plan, regarded as the most pro-Israel vision of the region’s future, denies the Palestinians a fully-fledged state and instead leaves them with scattered enclaves inside Israel.

After the Palestinians boycotted the plan, tensions flared as Mr Netanyahu repeatedly vowed to push ahead with annexation even before a peace deal is signed. In September, he drew up an annexation map of the Jordan Valley which, according to Israeli settlement monitor group Peace Now, would see more than 4,300 Palestinians annexed as well.

Fears mounted this month after the prime minister signed a unity deal with his chief election rival, Benny Gantz, allowing him to present an annexation proposal to the government as soon as July 1.

Mr Netanyahu is due in court tomorrow at the start of one of three corruption trials, on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges, which he vehemently denies.