Palestinians, Arab countries, Israeli anti-occupation groups and the UK 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. Up to now, settlers could only buy homes from registered companies on land controlled by Israel's government.
Israeli ministers presented the change as a step that will increase transparency and facilitate land redemption. Israel's foreign ministry later said it corrected a racist distortion that discriminated against Jews, Americans, Europeans, and anyone who is not Arab regarding real estate purchases in Judea and Samaria.
The cabinet also decided to repeal a legal requirement for a transaction permit to complete any purchase of real estate, thereby reducing oversight meant to prevent fraud.
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 - who heads the Palestinian Authority (PA), governing parts of the West Bank - 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.
He called for the US and UN Security Council to intervene immediately.
The Israeli NGO Peace Now said the cabinet's decision risked toppling the PA 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.
The UK said it strongly condemned the move and called on Israel to reverse the decision, saying any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic make-up of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international law.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar described the announcement as accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people.
Their statement warned against the continued expansionist Israeli policies and illegal measures pursued by the Israeli government in the occupied West Bank, which fuel violence and conflict in the region.
More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War. Those lands are wanted by Palestinians for their hoped-for independent state along with the Gaza Strip.
