Netanyahu’s Coalition Skips Parliamentary Vote Backing Trump’s Gaza Plan

People walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Nuseirat camp for displaced Palestinians, in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2025. (AFP)
People walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Nuseirat camp for displaced Palestinians, in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2025. (AFP)
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Netanyahu’s Coalition Skips Parliamentary Vote Backing Trump’s Gaza Plan

People walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Nuseirat camp for displaced Palestinians, in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2025. (AFP)
People walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Nuseirat camp for displaced Palestinians, in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition skipped a parliamentary vote on Wednesday endorsing US President Donald Trump's plan to end the two-year war in Gaza.

The vote, proposed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, was largely symbolic as Netanyahu had already publicly backed the plan after Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas in October.

Less than a third of the parliament's 120 lawmakers participated in it with 39 in favor and none against.

Lapid, a former prime minister, posted on X: "Israel now officially endorses and adopts President Trump's plan" alongside an image of himself with the president.

The non-binding vote potentially risked embarrassing Netanyahu if some of his coalition partners who have criticized Trump's plan had voted against it. The plan alludes to Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu's government opposes.

A lawmaker from Netanyahu's Likud party who did not take part in the vote repeatedly interjected during the proceedings. Another member of Likud was also present but did not vote.

Trump received a standing ovation when he addressed the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in October, days after the ceasefire took effect.

Two weeks after the address, a preliminary parliamentary vote passed, with 25 in favor and 24 against calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank after Trump had said Israel would not annex the territory.

US Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting Israel at the time, called the vote stupid and said he took it as an insult.



Palestinians Say Israeli Forces Kill 2 During Settler Attack

A broken window of a damaged Palestinian house a day after Israeli settlers attacked homes and property of Palestinian residents in the West Bank village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah City, 10 July 2026. (EPA)
A broken window of a damaged Palestinian house a day after Israeli settlers attacked homes and property of Palestinian residents in the West Bank village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah City, 10 July 2026. (EPA)
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Palestinians Say Israeli Forces Kill 2 During Settler Attack

A broken window of a damaged Palestinian house a day after Israeli settlers attacked homes and property of Palestinian residents in the West Bank village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah City, 10 July 2026. (EPA)
A broken window of a damaged Palestinian house a day after Israeli settlers attacked homes and property of Palestinian residents in the West Bank village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah City, 10 July 2026. (EPA)

The Palestinian health ministry said Monday that Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men when a group of Israeli settlers attacked a village in the occupied West Bank overnight.

The military said its troops opened fire after Palestinians threw stones at them.

The Ramallah-based ministry identified the two as Odeh Abdul Rahim Odeh Farakhna, 53, and Ahmad Adel Rashid Abu Mkhou, 26.

"They were killed by (Israeli) occupation gunfire in the town of Deir Jarir," it said.

In a separate statement, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams evacuated one other person wounded during a settler attack on the town late on Sunday.

Israel's military told AFP that troops were dispatched to Deir Jarir to protect and evacuate Israeli settlers who entered the area to retrieve livestock.

"A violent confrontation developed in the area, during which terrorists hurled rocks and concrete blocks at the forces," the military said.

"The forces responded with fire in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified."

Deir Jarir mayor Eid Hamad said that the settlers had come to take livestock that was not theirs.

"Settlers, accompanied by the Israeli army and police, arrived at the outskirts of the village and raided the sheep pens of local residents who owned sheep and cattle," he said at the two men's funeral on Monday.

"They brought a truck and loaded the sheep," Hamad said, adding that "while the settlers were there, young men from the village arrived and confronted them."

"The army then intervened and began firing on the young men present, resulting in casualties," Hamad said.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the outbreak of the Gaza war, with rights groups and the UN reporting near-daily attacks by Israeli settlers.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, among some three million Palestinians.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,090 Palestinians since the war in Gaza began, including both fighters and civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.

Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.