Palestinians condemn Israeli move to assert control over West Bank

Decision marks 'end of the remnants of the peace process', says Fatah

Likud party members vote during a Likud Central Committee meeting in Airport City, Israel December 31, 2017 (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

Palestinian groups have condemned a resolution by Israel's Likud party calling for the state to annexe parts of the West Bank.

At a meeting of the party's central committee on Sunday, around 1,500 members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party unanimously passed a measure urging the government to impose Israeli sovereignty over "Judea and Samaria", which covers sections of the West Bank.

The resolution also called for construction in existing settlements to become "unhindered".

Fatah and Hamas said the decision was aggressive and marked "an end of the remnants of the peace process".

Likud politicians in the Knesset are not bound by the committee's move, but the vote exerts political pressure on members of the government, since they need the body's backing to succeed in the party's primaries.

"The decision of the Likud party to impose Israeli control over the occupied West Bank represents an end to the remnants of the peace process unilaterally," a statement released by Fatah, a Palestinian nationalist political party, said.

Islamist group Hamas, meanwhile, called the policy a "policy of aggression against the Palestinian people".

Palestinian Authority President Mahmous Abbas also criticised the vote on Monday.

“His excellency [Mr Abbas] called on the international community to take immediate action to stop this aggression that the members of the extremist government coalition are leading against Palestinian rights and international resolutions," the Palestinian News Agency Wafa reported.

Mr Abbas also said “the absolute backing of the American administration" had emboldened the Likud committee to hold the vote.

Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December last year upended decades of US foreign policy and countered an international consensus that the fate of Jerusalem should be determined in negotiations.

The Independent has contacted the Israeli government for comment.