Israel approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank on Wednesday, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement.
Israel's finance minister announced the plans a day after saying he had scrapped a deal that gave the Palestinian municipality control over certain planning and construction around Hebron's historic core, home to a flashpoint holy shrine.
Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Israeli troops remain deployed in the area but construction has generally required approval from the Palestinian municipality, including around the shrine.
The religious heritage of the city has made it a focal point for Israeli settlers, who are determined to expand the Jewish presence. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, said construction of a 1,000-square-metre building for a Jewish school in Hebron's historic core had been approved.
"We are continuing to build the Land of Israel in practice and to implement practical sovereignty in the settlements," Smotrich, who has said he wants to bury the idea of Palestinian statehood, said in a statement.
Palestinians view the settlements as a primary obstacle to peace, depriving them of land they want for a future state.
Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed and saying a Jewish presence has existed there for thousands of years.
Smotrich's building announcement comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved steps earlier this year to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.
Palestinian officials said the security cabinet steps amounted to de facto annexation of West Bank land by handing powers long held by the military to Israel's civilian government.
Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist who lives in Hebron, said he feared Israel's dismantling of parts of the Hebron Agreement would leave Palestinian residents of the city without basic services.
He said that move was aimed at making life miserable for Palestinians and forcing them to leave.
"It means ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from their homes, and more displacement," he said, describing Israel's actions as stealing Palestinian dreams to have a state "and to live without violence, without fear, with peace".
Jewish residents of Hebron welcomed Smotrich's announcement, saying it would remove what they described as the "burden" of a Palestinian municipality that had tempered their expansion.
Smotrich said the planning approvals for the Jewish school building as well as new homes in Jewish settlements would "create facts on the ground" to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
"This is a national move that strengthens our hold on the land," said Smotrich, who since taking office has led the expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank.
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Israel has formally assumed planning and construction powers at one of the most sensitive religious sites in the occupied West Bank, ending an arrangement that had been in place for nearly three decades.
Israel's cabinet is expected to approve a plan on Thursday (11 June) to allocate around one billion shekels ($338 million) for settlement development in the West Bank, according to reports and anti-settlement campaigners.
A seven-month-old Palestinian baby has been killed and his parents injured after Israeli forces fired at a vehicle in Hebron, Palestinian health officials say.
Start your day informed with the AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top stories for the 6 June, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Donald Trump has said the U.S. will resume bombing Iran if Tehran doesn't "behave," at the sidelines of the G7 summit in France. Earlier, the U.S. President criticised Israel for its tactics against Hezbollah, saying it was unnecessary to bomb entire apartment buildings to tackle militants.
U.S. President Donald Trump said a preliminary agreement to end the war in the Gulf has been signed by the U.S. and Iran, though details have yet to be made public and both countries said a permanent truce is yet to be negotiated.
Australia's weather bureau warned on Tuesday that an El Niño weather pattern has formed in the tropical Pacific and could intensify in the second half of 2026, becoming one of the strongest events recorded in seven decades.
Pakistan's heavy reliance on imported energy was laid bare by the U.S.-Iran conflict, which disrupted regional supplies, drove up costs and exposed vulnerabilities in the country's energy security. However, a proposed peace agreement now offers hope for economic relief.
A cyber extortion group has claimed it stole more than a terabyte of data from Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk after the company allegedly refused to pay a $25 million ransom.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has announced that Italy will reopen its embassy in Tehran on Friday (19 June), marking a rare reversal in a period of heightened regional instability and disrupted diplomatic ties across the Middle East.
Uzbekistan unveiled an ambitious investment and reform agenda at the Fifth Tashkent International Investment Forum, bringing together more than 8,300 participants from 100 countries, including heads of state, government officials, global corporations and international financial institutions.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Abdolnasser Hemmati, is visiting Russia to strengthen bilateral monetary and banking relations as Tehran and Moscow seek closer financial cooperation amid Western sanctions.
Britain has announced an additional £8 million ($11 million) to help Pakistan combat illegal migration, human trafficking and organised crime, while praising Islamabad's role in diplomacy that helped secure the recent U.S.-Iran agreement.
Kazakhstan will begin routing selected government expenditures worth more than 100 million tenge ($190,000) through its digital tenge platform, expanding the use of the central bank digital currency to strengthen oversight of public spending.
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