British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband
Press TV
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says Britain will unveil a “comprehensive” package of measures on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in the coming weeks.
Addressing lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Miliband said Israel’s plan to expand settlements in the E1 area of the West Bank would cut across land which the Palestinians seek for a state and “risks making a Palestinian state unviable”.
“This government will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” he said. “We will act, and I will set out a comprehensive set of measures in the coming weeks.”
In August 2025, Israel approved the E1 project, which involves building 3,400 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territory, primarily near the existing Maale Adumim settlement. The plan also covers around 12 square kilometers to the east of al-Quds.
The settlement corridor threatens to divide the West Bank into isolated cantons, undermining any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian territory. Bedouin communities, including the village of Khan al-Ahmar, also face forced displacement under the plan.
Miliband also slammed the intensifying settler violence in the occupied territories.
“Over recent weeks, we’ve also seen appalling settler terrorism and Palestinians driven from their homes,” Miliband said.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said before taking office that he was “looking at measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements”.
Israel threatens UK
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar reacted to the announcement shortly afterwards, warning London against imposing sanctions over its E1 settlement project.
“If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain,” Sa’ar told a podcast interview with Ynet, without elaborating.
Pressed on how Israel would respond, Sa’ar said, “There are tools. I’m saying this clearly and unequivocally. If they act, I think they will be making a major mistake. It will work the opposite way from how they may be dreaming it will work.”
The Times of Israel last week quoted a source with knowledge of the issue as saying that Sa’ar warned Miliband that Israel would respond to British sanctions with measures of its own, which could include the expulsion of British officials from the International Gaza Support Center, as well as more extreme steps.
Israel demolishes residential structures in Tubas
Meanwhile, in the West Bank province of Tubas, Israeli bulldozers have begun demolishing residential structures and livestock pens in the Ras al-Ahmar area.
Mutaz Bisharat, the official in charge of settlement affairs in Tubas, said the demolished structures belonged to two Palestinian families.
Israeli soldiers also stormed the towns of Qaffin and Zeita, north of Tulkarem, with several military vehicles.
They patrolled the towns and set up a checkpoint at the Ras Rummana intersection.
West Bank food assistance drops
In the meantime, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it is forced to halve the number of aid recipients in the occupied West Bank due to a funding shortfall, warning of dire consequences.
WFP’s assistance was reaching 400,000 of the most vulnerable Palestinian people, but food assistance will drop to 200,000 people beginning this month.
“WFP is being forced to reduce the number of people we assist in the West Bank by half, and this is happening as the food needs in the West Bank are more than double what they were two years ago,” Shaun Hughes, the agency’s representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters.
“Families who were once thriving and earning a living from their land are now unable to afford enough food,” he added.
The UN agency noted that intensified settler violence, massacres and forced displacement of Palestinians have disrupted their livelihoods, “deepening hunger and pushing families further into crisis”.
Since the onset of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the West Bank has experienced a persistent increase in Israeli military offensives and assaults by settlers, coupled with the proliferation of unlawful settlement outposts, development of roads exclusively for settlers, and stricter limitations on the movement of Palestinians.
Western countries have come under fierce criticism for failing to take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the settler violence in the West Bank.
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