Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in the New Administrative Capital. Photo: Al-Ahram
The condemnation follows growing international criticism after the Israeli cabinet announced measures aimed at tightening control over the occupied territory.
These measures, announced on Sunday, include declassifying land registry records and facilitating the seizure of Palestinian property by Israeli settlers.
They also allow transferring powers of the Hebron municipality, including authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque, to Israeli occupation authorities and introducing procedures enabling the demolition of Palestinian buildings.
Cairo said the decisions represent a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions and a deliberate attempt to undermine the existing legal and historical status quo.
The statement added that the measures clearly breach the 1997 Hebron Agreement.
Egypt warned that the steps would further entrench annexation, expand settlement activity, and impose full Israeli control over Palestinian territory.
The foreign ministry reiterated Egypt’s firm rejection of all annexation and settlement policies and unilateral actions that undermine prospects for peace and a two-state solution.
It said such measures would fuel further tension and instability in the occupied Palestinian territories and the wider region.
Egypt also urged the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to assume its legal and moral responsibilities by halting the violations, ensuring respect for international humanitarian law, and protecting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
These rights include the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state along the 4 June 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, the statement added.
The West Bank is one of the areas Palestinians seek for a future independent state, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Much of the West Bank, where settlements are located, is under Israeli control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas, governed by the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinians are not permitted to sell land privately to Israelis. Settlers can buy homes on land in areas occupied by the Israeli forces.
More than 700,000 Israelis illegally live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
More than 1,000 Palestinians, nearly a quarter of them children, have been killed by Israeli forces and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since October 2023.
This violence by Israel in the West Bank is part of a two-year war across Palestinian territories, which has also killed over 71,660 people in the Gaza Strip.
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