The price of freedom: The company making millions from Gaza’s misery

Published

2 years ago

March 1, 2024

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For weeks, Amani* and her five children have been living in a tent in Rafah, the increasingly crowded city on Gaza’s southern border.

“There is constant bombing and terror. My children are very afraid,” she says.

“We are dying slowly and nobody cares, nobody feels for us. Our kids have no life. It’s not clean, there’s no food. Everything is difficult.”

Across the border, in Egypt, her husband Mahmoud* has been desperately trying to arrange for them to be allowed out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

He has not seen his wife or children for five months. Their youngest is just three years old.

“I wish I could leave and take my children to their father,” says Amani. “He is trying to make coordination for us to get to him, but it is expensive.”

By “coordination”, Amani is referring to a system by which Palestinians can pay for permission to leave the Gaza Strip.

Before the war, Palestinians faced waiting weeks or months to be allowed into Egypt. By paying a few hundred dollars to one of several companies, however, they could guarantee their travel in a matter of days.

Normal cross-border travel has been suspended since the start of the war. Coordination is now the only way for Palestinians without dual nationality to leave Gaza, barring medical evacuation.

And while there used to be several companies offering coordination, now there is only one – the Egyptian firm Hala.

Before the war, it was possible to travel with Hala for $350 (£277) – as seen in the advertisement below, by a Gaza-based travel agent offering Hala services.

Since the war began, however, Hala has increased its prices to $5,000 (£3,960) per adult – a 14-fold increase.

Sky News has verified this price by corroborating accounts from dozens of sources, including a Hala employee, as well as price lists posted online.

Amani and her husband owned a profitable business in Gaza City before the war. Now it is nothing but rubble.

“They asked for $5,000 for an adult and $2,500 for a kid. How can we provide it?” says Amani.

One former coordination agent tells Sky News that he quit the industry because of Hala’s price rises. “I refuse to partake in the crime of these prices and the extortion,” he says.

Hala could be making $1m per day

Officially, Egypt is only allowing the exit of foreign nationals and injured evacuees. In recent weeks, however, the majority of those receiving permission to leave Gaza did so through Hala (56%).

On 27 February, for instance, 246 people were registered to travel with Hala, compared to 40 medical evacuees and 123 foreign nationals.

Hala’s travel list for that day, shown below, included 48 children and 198 adults, six of whom were Egyptian citizens. Based on our knowledge of Hala’s fares, that means the company could have made $1,083,900 (£858,286) in just one day.

We don’t know exactly how much the company has made on other days – this is the only time their travel list has included passengers’ nationalities, and Egyptians pay a much lower fare. But the volume of passengers has been consistent for weeks.

How Hala operates

Sky News has spoken to more than 70 Palestinians to understand how Hala is able to operate, and how its prices are affecting Palestinians at a time when so many are desperate to escape for fear of an Israeli invasion of Rafah.

Our sources include 30 people who have travelled with Hala since the war began, or who have personally arranged travel for someone.

Hala leaves little in the way of a paper trail. The company is not registered on the website of the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, as Egyptian companies involved in cross-border travel are required to do. Its sole internet presence is two Facebook pages and a Google form.

All of our interviewees said that payment had to be made in cash, and none were provided with a receipt.

They received only a ticket with their name on, but no information about the sum paid.

And although price lists are easily found on social media, none are provided officially by Hala.

“They wouldn’t post prices officially – they don’t want the heat,” says one man who organised travel for his family. “People just inquire at the office and spread the word.”

Word spreads via social media, on Facebook pages and Telegram channels with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers.

A Hala employee told Sky News that the best way to register and pay for travel with the company was to send a relative to their head office in Cairo.

The employee said people could also pay via mobile cash transfer, though this was not corroborated by any of our sources.

Hala’s main office is at the headquarters of its parent company, the Organi Group, in Cairo’s Nasr City district.

“The whole building is guarded with massive security,” said one source who had visited the office. “It’s very fancy.”

Multiple sources said that there were often hundreds or thousands of people queuing outside. Two told Sky News that they were forced to pay a non-refundable $1,000 deposit simply to get into the building.

Videos verified by Sky News show the queues on 20 February.

Sky News was able to geolocate the videos to a street outside the Organi Group’s headquarters in Nasr City, confirming their location.

Once the money has been handed over, passengers wait to hear if they have been accepted for travel.

“Our understanding is that Egypt and Israel are very closely coordinated on who can exit through the crossing,” says Tania Hary, executive director of Israeli human rights organisation Gisha.

“So, it would surprise me if Hala’s lists were shielded from Israeli scrutiny.”

The Egyptian and Israeli authorities did not respond when asked whether they were involved in running security checks on Hala travellers.

Once their names have been approved, customers are issued a travel ticket and wait until their names appear on a travel list.

“People are quite desperate,” said Hary.

“They are fundraising, they’re asking for money from their family members, doing whatever they can to raise very high sums of money in order to pay for their own freedom.”

“Completely out of our league”

On the windswept coast of North Wales, the war in Gaza feels like a world away. But the skyrocketing cost of escaping the conflict is being felt here, too.

“We were really shocked with the prices,” says Palestinian mother-of-two Hend when we meet at her home in Bangor. “They are completely out of our league.”

Hend and her husband Ahmed are trying to raise £48,163 through crowdfunding to pay for nine members of Ahmed’s family, including his parents, to travel with Hala.

The couple moved from Gaza to Wales shortly before the war, so that Ahmed could take up a job as a doctor in the NHS. His parents stayed behind.

Their three-year-old son Qussai has been asking when he can speak to his grandparents again.

Hend’s and Ahmed’s parents have not had the chance to meet their five-month-old granddaughter Farida, who was born after the couple relocated.

During a video call with his grandparents early in the war, Hend says, Qussai heard the sound of bombing in the background and asked what it was.

“The first thing on my mind, I said it was a volcano,” Hend says.

“And now whenever he hears a loud voice or slamming or anything, he says it’s a volcano.

“I wonder, if any mother was in my place what would she feel? Because sometimes I find I cannot process what I feel and what I’m living.”

Hala’s current prices would be unaffordable for most Gaza residents in normal times. But salaries have gone unpaid for months, many have lost their homes, and inflation is rampant.

“Previously, if we gave someone $100 it could support them for a week or two,” says Ahmed. “It would merely cover one day now.”

“We are still far from our goal,” Hend says. “What we have collected until now is not enough to get one person out.”

Hundreds of Palestinians like Hend and Ahmed are trying to raise funds through platforms such as GoFundMe and JustGiving.

“For those people in Gaza who are deprived of everything, [Hala] is kind of a life jacket in the sea,” said a researcher from Sinai, familiar with the Egypt-Gaza border.

Sky News analysed a sample of 140 GoFundMe pages to see what kind of money Palestinians were trying to raise.

The average fundraiser was seeking enough for a typical household, which our research suggests includes a couple, their parents and four children. Yet most had not even raised enough for one adult traveller.

It can be difficult to leave without coordination

Aside from coordination, there are only two other ways to leave Gaza. Those with foreign nationality can leave through their embassies, and those with major injuries can apply for a medical evacuation.

Even for the severely wounded, getting a place on the injured list is no easy task.

Between 10 and 29 February, an average of just 44 people were included on this list each day, compared to an average of 234 who coordinated with Hala.

It took Hend four months to secure the evacuation of her father Adnan, despite him suffering a fractured femur and complications from a liver transplant.

Foreign nationals have also faced difficulties leaving via official routes. Sky News spoke to three foreign nationals (Greek, Dutch and Canadian) who were unable to leave without paying. One is currently trying to arrange travel with Hala.

Sky News asked Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry whether the government condoned Hala charging $5,000 for Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.

“Absolutely not,” Shoukry said. “We will take whatever measures we need so as to restrict it and eliminate it totally. There should be no advantage taken out of this situation for monetary gain.”

Asked whether the government will look into these allegations, Shoukry said: “It is already looking into it and will take action vis-a-vis anyone who has been implicated in such activities.”

Amr Magdi, an Egypt expert at Human Rights Watch, tells Sky News that Shoukry’s response “rings hollow”.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Magdi says. “There can’t be such economic activity, especially when it is a monopoly, without a green light from the military and without actual connections to the military.”

“It’s mainly the military and the military intelligence who control the border,” he says. “No one can pass through the border without the knowledge of the Egyptian authorities.”

Hala’s parent company, the Organi Group, is a high-profile company in Egypt. In January 2023, it became an official sponsor of Al Ahly, the most successful football team in Africa.

Almost all of those who spoke to us did so on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retaliation from the Egyptian authorities.

“They will arrest me and my family if they know I talked with you,” said one man, who had recently arranged his father’s exit. “I am afraid of them – you don’t know how brutal they are.”

Sky News presented its findings to Hala, the Organi Group and governments of Israel and Egypt. None of them responded.

“This isn’t life”

After five months of war, health authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say that more than 30,000 have been killed.

Half the population is now crammed into Rafah, transforming much of the city into a refugee camp.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to prepare for a “powerful” ground invasion of the city but has not set out any plan for the evacuation of Rafah’s 1.5 million residents.

Egypt has categorically rejected any suggestion that Palestinians should be allowed to flee en masse into Sinai.

However, footage shared by the Egypt-based group Sinai for Human Rights and verified by Sky News shows a large land-clearing operation is under way on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border, as well as the construction of a wall.

Sky has not been able to independently verify the purpose of the construction works, but Sinai for Human Rights says that it is intended to house an influx of Palestinian refugees.

Shoukry told Sky News that the activity was part of the “ordinary maintenance” of the border. “It is in no way related to providing any camps or shelter on our side of the border,” he said.

As of 26 February, satellite imagery shows, an area of roughly 15 square kilometres has been cleared.

High-resolution imagery from the same date shows scores of trucks and construction vehicles in the area.

For parents like Amani, the mother-of-five in Rafah, it is difficult to see what kind of future their children can expect.

“This isn’t life, living on the streets with no food or water,” she says. “We are living in fear.”

Amani’s children have not seen their father Mahmoud in five months. It would cost the couple $17,500 to reunite their family.

“I want them to see their father but it’s too expensive,” Amani says.

“God willing, the price will fall.”

Additional reporting by Sam Doak and Mary Poynter.

*Amani’s and Mahmoud’s names have been changed to preserve their anonymity.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling, we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

World

Revealed: The plan for a ‘New Gaza’ – and the four militias Israel is backing to defeat Hamas

Published

11 hours ago

October 25, 2025

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Revealed: The plan for a 'New Gaza' - and the four militias Israel is backing to defeat Hamas

Israel may have agreed to stop fighting in Gaza, but it is backing armed groups that plan to fight Hamas to the bitter end.

Sky News has confirmed for the first time that four anti-Hamas militias are all backed by Israel, and consider themselves part of a joint project to remove Hamas from power.

The groups are all operating from areas still under Israeli control, behind what’s been called the “yellow line” – the boundary for Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troop deployments established by the ceasefire agreement.

“We have an official project – me, [Yasser] Abu Shabab, [Rami] Halas, and [Ashraf] al Mansi,” says militia leader Hossam al Astal, speaking to Sky News from his base in southern Gaza.

“We are all for ‘The New Gaza’. Soon we will achieve full control of the Gaza Strip and will gather under one umbrella.”

The footage below, shared with Sky News, shows troops from Hossam al Astal’s militia parading near its base.

We used the video to identify the location of the militia’s headquarters for the first time.

It is situated on a military road that runs along the yellow line, less than 700 metres from the nearest IDF outpost.

“I’m hearing the sound of tanks now while I’m speaking, perhaps they’re out on patrol or something, but I’m not worried,” says al Astal.

“They don’t engage us, and we don’t engage them […] We’ve agreed, through the coordinator, that this is a green zone, not to be targeted by shelling or gunfire.”

The New Gaza

This area, now a patchwork of rubble and military berms, was once a leafy suburb of Gaza’s second city, Khan Younis.

Al Astal says he grew up here, but was forced to flee in 2010 after being pursued by Hamas over his involvement in militant groups aligned with their rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).

He spent the next 11 years abroad, working for the PA’s security services in Egypt and Malaysia.

Two months after he returned to Gaza, he was accused of involvement in the 2018 assassination of a Hamas member in Malaysia and sentenced to death.

“When the war started, they left us locked up, hoping the Israelis would bomb the prison and rid them of us,” he says. “Two months later, we broke down the doors and escaped.”

He says that his weapons, mainly Kalashnikov rifles, are purchased from former Hamas fighters on the black market.

Ammunition and vehicles, on the other hand, are delivered through the Kerem Shalom border crossing after coordination with the Israeli military.

This is the same border crossing used by another militia leader, Yasser Abu Shabab.

Sky News previously revealed that Abu Shabab’s militia was smuggling vehicles into Gaza with the help of the Israeli military and an Arab-Israeli car dealer.

Al Astal says he uses the same car dealer. One of his vehicles appears to have Hebrew writing on the side, which has been partially scratched out.

He says his militia also receives weekly deliveries of everyday items needed to support the civilians living at the camp.

“We currently provide basic medical and education support to roughly 30 families,” he says.

“Children can get apples and bananas, food and drink, chips and so on. By contrast, in the other area, in the tents, you find five-, 10- or even 15-year-olds surviving on little more than lentils and pasta.”

He says these supplies come in via weekly deliveries. In the video below, a cargo truck can be seen at the militia’s base.

A similar cargo truck can be seen in satellite imagery of the camp, taken on 14 October.

Sky News has also confirmed that the other two militias, which are operating in the north of Gaza, are receiving supplies from Israel.

The video below, filmed by a member of Ashraf al Mansi’s militia, shows a car loaded with supplies driving towards their base.

Sky News previously confirmed that this road leads either from an IDF outpost or from the Erez border crossing with Israel.

A member of the other militia operating in northern Gaza, which is led by Rami Halas, told Sky News that coordination with the IDF is done indirectly through the District Coordination Office.

It’s part of the Israeli defence ministry, but also includes officials from the PA – Palestine’s internationally recognised government, based in the West Bank.

This fits with what we were told by al Astal, by an Israeli soldier stationed at Kerem Shalom, and by a senior commander in Abu Shabab’s militia – that coordination with the military is managed indirectly, and that the PA plays a key role.

“I have people within my group who are still, to this day, employees of the Palestinian Authority,” says al Astal.

The PA did not respond to Sky’s questions, but has previously denied having any relationship to these militias.

“The Palestinian Authority can’t admit to having a direct relationship with us,” the militia leader says.

“It already has enough issues and doesn’t want to add to that burden. You know, if word got out that they had ties with militias or with the occupation forces, you can imagine how that would look.”

Military coordination

Although he acknowledges working with Israel to secure supplies, al Astal denies he has ever coordinated military operations with the IDF.

Sky News previously reported that Israeli aircraft had intervened in two battles fought by Abu Shabab’s militia.

We asked Abu Shabab whether these were due to coordination, but did not receive a response.

Hamas accused al Astal’s militia group of direct military coordination after several of its fighters were killed when Israel intervened during a battle between the two groups on 3 October.

The footage below, published by the IDF, shows the strikes that day.

“I don’t control Israeli airstrikes,” al Astal says. “The Israelis simply saw armed Hamas military groups and struck them.”

In April, two months before he founded the militia, al Astal’s own tent was hit by an Israeli bomb. The strike killed his 22-year-old daughter, Nihad, who was seven months pregnant.

“People accuse me of collaboration,” he says. “How can anyone speak about me like that? Were the Israelis ‘joking around’ with me with a missile?”

He believes the strike was intended for a Hamas member living nearby.

“If I listed every crime against children and women, the blame wouldn’t rest on Israel but on Hamas, which hid among the people.”

Support from outside powers

Multiple sources also told Sky News that the militias are also receiving support from outside powers.

The deputy leader of Abu Shabab’s militia, Ghassan al Duhine, has twice been photographed next to a vehicle with a UAE-registered licence plate.

Sky News also found that the logo of the group’s armed wing, the Counter Terrorism Service, is almost identical to that used by a UAE-backed militia of the same name operating in Yemen.

The logo used by al Astal’s militia, the Counter Terrorism Strike Force, similarly uses the same illustration as that used by a different UAE-backed militia, also based in Yemen.

The UAE did not respond to Sky’s request for comment.

When we asked al Astal whether he enjoyed the backing of the UAE, he smiled.

“God willing, in time everything will become clear,” he said. “But yes, there are Arab countries that support our project.”

That project, al Astal says, has a name: The New Gaza.

‘No war… no Hamas, no terrorism’

“Very soon, God willing, you will see this for yourselves; we will become the new administration of Gaza. Our project is ‘The New Gaza’. No war, at peace with everyone – no Hamas, no terrorism.”

Two days after Sky News spoke to al Astal, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, used the phrase himself while suggesting that Gaza could be split indefinitely along the yellow line.

“No reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls,” Kushner told reporters on Wednesday.

“There are considerations happening now in the area that the IDF controls, as long as that can be secured, to start the construction as a ‘New Gaza’ in order to give Palestinians living in Gaza a place to go, a place to get jobs.”

The IDF declined to comment on these findings. Hamas, the PA and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli agency which manages the Israel-Gaza border, did not respond to our requests for comment.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

World

US ramps up ‘drug boats’ operation by sending in aircraft carrier to region

Published

11 hours ago

October 25, 2025

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US ramps up 'drug boats' operation by sending in aircraft carrier to region

The US has announced it is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America as it ramps up an operation to target alleged drug smuggling boats.

The Pentagon said in a statement that the USS Gerald R Ford would be deployed to the region, including the Caribbean Sea, to “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere”.

The vessel is the US Navy’s largest aircraft carrier. It is currently deployed in the Mediterranean alongside three destroyers, and the group are expected to take around one week to make the journey.

There are already eight US Navy ships in the central and South American region, along with a nuclear-powered submarine, adding up to about 6,000 sailors and marines, according to officials.

It came as the US secretary of war claimed that six “narco-terrorists” had been killed in a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea overnight.

Pete Hegseth said his military had bombed a vessel which he claimed was operated by Tren de Aragua – a Venezuelan gang designated a terror group by Washington in February.

Writing on X, he claimed that the boat was involved in “illicit narcotics smuggling” and was transiting along a “known narco-trafficking route” when it was struck during the night.

All six men on board the boat, which was in international waters, were killed and no US forces were harmed, he said.

Ten vessels have now been bombed in recent weeks, killing more than 40 people.

Mr Hegseth added: “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat al Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

While he did not provide any evidence that the vessel was carrying drugs, he did share a 20-second video that appeared to show a boat being hit by a projectile before exploding.

Speaking during a White House news conference last week, Donald Trump argued that the campaign would help tackle the US’s opioid crisis.

“Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. So every time you see a boat, and you feel badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough’. It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people,” he said.

Analysis: Is the US about to invade Venezuela?

It’s a question that’s got more relevant – and more urgent – over the last 24 hours.

The US government has just deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier and its associated battleships to the Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela.

So: what’s going on?

Well, on the face of it, it’s a drugs war. For weeks now, the Trump administration has been using the US military to “dismantle transnational criminal organisations and counter narco terrorism in the defence of the homeland”.

Basically: stopping the drugs supply into America.

Dealing with the demand might actually be more effective as a strategy, but that’s another story.

Donald Trump’s focus is to hit the supply countries and to hit them hard – and this is what that has looked like: drones and missiles taking out boats said to be carrying drugs from places like Venezuela into the US.

We can’t know for sure that these are drugs boats or if the people are guilty of anything, because the US government won’t tell us who the people are.

But alongside this, something bigger has been going on: a massive build-up of US troops in the Caribbean, over 6,000 sailors and marines are there.

Here’s the thing: an aircraft carrier is not remotely suited to stopping drug smuggling.

However, it is a vital element of any planned ground or air war.

Trump is focused on stopping the drugs, yes, but is there actually a wider objective here: regime change?

He has been clear in his belief in spheres of influence around the world – and his will and want to control and dominate the Western hemisphere.

Influence domination over Venezuela could fix the drug problem for sure, but much more too.

The world’s largest oil reserves? Yes, they’re in Venezuela.

On Thursday, appearing at a press conference with Mr Hegseth, Mr Trump said that it was necessary to kill the alleged smugglers, because if they were arrested they would only return to transport drugs “again and again and again”.

“They don’t fear that, they have no fear,” he told reporters.

The attacks at sea would soon be followed by operations on land against drug smuggling cartels, Mr Trump claimed.

“We’re going to kill them,” he added. “They’re going to be, like, dead.”

Some Democratic politicians have expressed concerns that the strikes risk dragging the US into a war with Venezuela because of their proximity to the South American country’s coast.

Others have condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings that would not stand up in a court of law.

Jim Himes, a member of the House of Representatives, told CBS News earlier this month: “They are illegal killings because the notion that the United States – and this is what the administration says is their justification – is involved in an armed conflict with any drug dealers, any Venezuelan drug dealers, is ludicrous.”

He claimed that Congress had been told “nothing” about who was on the boats and how they were identified as a threat.

World

Turkey urges US to act after accusing Israel of breaching Gaza ceasefire

Published

20 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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Turkey urges US to act after accusing Israel of breaching Gaza ceasefire

Turkey has urged the US to take action after accusing Israel of violating the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington and its allies should consider sanctions and halting arms sales to put pressure on Israel to abide by the agreement.

Turkey, a NATO member, joined ceasefire negotiations as a mediator, and increased its role following a meeting between Mr Erdogan and Donald Trump at the White House last month.

“The Hamas side is abiding by the ceasefire. In fact, it is openly stating its commitment to this. Israel, meanwhile, is continuing to violate the ceasefire,” Mr Erdogan told reporters.

“The international community, namely the United States, must do more to ensure Israel’s full compliance to the ceasefire and agreement,” he said.

Mr Erdogan was also asked about comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hinted that he would be opposed to any peacekeeping role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip.

The Turkish president said talks on the issue were still underway, adding: “As this is a multi-faceted issue, there are comprehensive negotiations. We are ready to provide Gaza any form of support on this issue.”

Israel has accused Hamas of breaching the truce and previously said its recent military action in Gaza was designed to uphold the agreement.

Relations between former allies Israel and Turkey hit new lows during the Gaza war, with Ankara accusing Mr Netanyahu’s government of committing genocide, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.

Speaking during a visit to Israel on Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a planned international security force for Gaza would have to be made up of “countries that Israel’s comfortable with,” but declined to comment specifically on Turkey’s involvement.

Around 200 US troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries, planning the stabilisation and reconstruction of Gaza.

The US is seeking support from other allies, namely Gulf Arab nations, to build an international security force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian security force.

Mr Rubio said many nations had expressed interest, but decisions had yet to be made about the rules of engagement. He added that countries need to know what they were signing up for.

“Under what authority are they going to be operating? Who’s going to be in charge? What is their job?” said Mr Rubio.

The secretary of state also reiterated his earlier warning to Israel not to annex the occupied West Bank, land that Palestinians want for part of an independent state.

A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday.

“We don’t think it’s going to happen”, Mr Rubio said, adding that annexation “would also threaten this whole process”.

“If [annexation] were to happen, a lot of the countries that are involved in working on this probably aren’t going to want to be involved in this anymore. It’s a threat to the peace process and everybody knows it”, he added.