Israel announced the opening of a new investigation and intelligence office in the West Bank, while Israeli sources said that Washington had requested to slow down the process of annexing parts of the West Bank.
The Israeli police said that they opened today "a unit of investigation and intelligence in the West Bank Directorate," and stated that they opened the new unit in a special complex, which was built and is equipped with all advanced technological means.
The Israeli police have not clarified whether this move was related to the intention of the Israeli government to annex parts of the West Bank in July.
Israel intends to annex all the settlements established on the West Bank lands, and lands over which dozens of Palestinian villages are located, equivalent to about 30% of the area of the West Bank.
Police said that the new unit consists of 15 secret investigators and police officers, explaining that it will work in the areas of investigation and intelligence related to the activities of the Palestinian popular resistance against the Israeli occupation, in addition to other specialties "such as crime, the illegal entry of Palestinians into Israel and agricultural crimes."
The Israeli police pointed out that this unit is operating for the first time in the West Bank.
Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, and since then it has deployed Israeli army and border guard forces.
A new American request,
while Israel is preparing to implement the annexation process; An Israeli report said that White House officials asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to slow the process of annexing Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
The Israeli channel 13 indicated that this matter was raised during a telephone conversation held Monday between Netanyahu and Jared Kushner, the senior aide to the American president and his son-in-law, the American envoy Avi Berkowitz and the Washington ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
She stated that the same thing was raised in a meeting between Friedman and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz in Israel.
She added that US officials wanted to hear from Netanyahu and Gantz about their plans to annex land in the West Bank.
It quoted an Israeli official, who was not named, as saying that the prevailing impression is that the White House wants to slow down the process before taking a final decision.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the opportunity is historic to establish sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.
In tweets on his Twitter account, Netanyahu said he had held a meeting with Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin and heads of Israeli towns in the West Bank.
Netanyahu confirmed his commitment to conduct negotiations on the basis of US President Donald Trump's plan, noting that discussions with the American side continue.
Netanyahu has announced on more than one occasion that the Israeli government wants to start the annexation process, which will cover 30% of the West Bank area, in next July, but the Israeli channel said that the Trump administration has not yet decided whether to give Netanyahu the green light for the annexation process. .
As for the Palestinian leadership, it announced last month that the Palestine Liberation Organization was in a solution of agreements with Israel and the United States due to the Israeli annexation decisions.
Two houses were demolished in Jerusalem
On the other hand, the Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished two houses in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Al-Mukabbar, claiming that they were not licensed.
The occupation authorities reject most of the requests submitted in these areas by the Palestinians to build in them under various pretexts.
It has also stepped up demolitions in Jerusalem and areas within the "C" area in the West Bank, on the pretext of not licensing.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) considered that the increasing pace of demolishing Palestinian homes in the town of Jabal Al-Mukaber (south of occupied Jerusalem) represents an ethnic cleansing aimed at displacing Jerusalemites.
The movement's spokesman, Abd al-Latif al-Qanu`, said, in a press statement, that the increase in the frequency of house demolitions on the pretext of building without a permit, in Jabal al-Mukabber, aims to displace the Palestinian people with false pretenses.
He added that this policy is a crime that cannot be silenced or allowed to continue, stressing the need to give the hand of resistance and speedy intervention to protect the Palestinians.
The Palestinian National Information Center (governmental) says that the number of homes demolished since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967 amounted to more than 1,900 homes.