PALESTINIANS will not allow themselves to be driven out of the West Bank, their Foreign Minister Riad Malki said yesterday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to annex the Israeli settlements there.

Asked in an interview on Saturday why he had not formally annexed settlements on Palestinian territory during his current term, Mr Netanyahu said Israel was ready to “move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty.”

Israel’s colonisation of Palestinian land is illegal but the country already treats the settlements as part of its territory in many ways, authorising construction, connecting them via a network of Jewish-only roads and deploying its military, which directly occupies most of the West Bank, to protect them. Its settlement programme has been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations and is formally disapproved by the US and EU.

But Mr Netanyahu hinted that US President Donald Trump, who has already outraged international opinion by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when occupied East Jerusalem is seen as the only viable capital of a future Palestinian state, had changed the game.

In a Friday interview with the Times of Israel, he responded to a question about annexing “Area C” — the 60 per cent of the West Bank under full Israeli control — saying “I promise you will be surprised. I cannot talk about the plan, but Trump is a big friend and I doubt there will ever be any bigger friend than him.”

Mr Malki also pointed the finger at Mr Trump, saying his recognition of Jerusalem and of Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights had encouraged Mr Netanyahu to further violate international law.

But Palestinians would “resist” any annexation, he warned, saying: “If Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to face a real problem, the presence of 4.5 million Palestinians, what to do with them. We will stay there. The international community has to deal with us.”