The Palestinian president’s office called the decision a “dangerous attempt to legitimize settlement expansion” by Israel.

Israel’s security cabinet has approved new rules aimed at tightening Israel’s control over the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, local media reports said.

The Palestinian president’s office said in a statement on Sunday that the decision was “dangerous” and an “open attempt by Israel to legitimize settlement expansion and land confiscation.” The office of President Mahmoud Abbas called on the United States and the United Nations Security Council to intervene immediately.

In response to Israel’s move, the Palestinian organization Hamas called on people in the West Bank to “intensify confrontations with occupation forces and settlers.”

Meanwhile, Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the decision, which was aimed at “illegal imposition of Israeli sovereignty” and the entrenchment of settlements.

The rules will make it easier for Israeli settlers to buy land in the occupied West Bank and give Israeli authorities greater powers to enforce laws against Palestinians in the area, Israeli media reported.

The West Bank is one of the areas, along with Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem, where Palestinians aspire to a future independent state. Much of the West Bank is under direct Israeli military control, with very limited Palestinian autonomy in some areas, which are ruled by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

According to Israeli news outlets Ynet and Haaretz, the new measures include abolishing rules that prevented Jewish individuals from purchasing land in the occupied West Bank.

The measures also include allowing Israeli authorities to take charge of some religious sites and strengthening Israeli oversight and enforcement in areas controlled by the PA, according to media reports.

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Birzeit in the occupied West Bank, called Israel’s move “the most dangerous and serious push towards annexation and the most important decision since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.”

“According to the signed agreement, individual Israeli settlers will be allowed to own land in areas that have historically been under Palestinian control,” Ibrahim said.

“There is nothing that prevents settlers from owning land and coming to the center of Ramallah city and building houses,” Ibrahim said, adding that land ownership and building houses by settlers is illegal based on signed agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and international law that prohibits the occupying power from moving its nationals into occupied territory.

Ibrahim said Palestinians were only allowed to build housing in Areas A and B, where they owned land and were able to build and expand. “There are many restrictions on Palestinians owning land and building houses. Every time Palestinians build buildings in Area C, Israel demolishes them,” she said. Area C in particular has many settlers.

“We continue to bury the idea of ​​a Palestinian state,” the office of Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement.

“We are entrenching settlements as an integral part of the Israeli government’s policy,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

Palestinian News Agency Wafa reported that Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh said that reports of Israeli measures expected to strengthen annexation and create new facts on the ground in the occupied West Bank are a complete violation of all signed and binding agreements, a serious escalation and a violation of international law.

He stressed that these unilateral measures are aimed at eliminating all political prospects, obliterating the two-state solution and dragging the entire region into further tension and instability.

An Al Jazeera correspondent said Israeli authorities can now demolish houses in Areas A and B, which have historically been under Palestinian control.

“This decision brings the entire occupied West Bank to a standstill and further consolidates Israel’s occupation and control of the land. In the words of many Israeli leaders, it kills the dream of an independent Palestinian state,” she said.

The report came three days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.