New Israeli "annexation" coalition deals "new deadly blow" to two-state solution: analysts

File Photo: A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli troops during clashes with Israeli troops on the Gaza-Israel border, east of southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Aug. 30, 2019. (Xinhua/Stringer)

Palestinian analysts believed that the new Israeli unity government based on annexing parts of the Palestinian lands in the West Bank deals "a new deadly blow" to the principle of the two-state solution.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, signed an agreement with his main rival Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, on the formation of a new unity government, and they will rotate the position of the prime minister every 18 months, according to Israeli Radio.

The radio quoting sources in Netanyahu's Likud party as saying the agreement involves imposing Israeli sovereignty on "part of the historic lands of Israel" on July 1.

Calling it "an Israeli annexation government," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said this government "means the end of the two-state solution."

Adnan Abu Aamer, a political science professor at al-Ummah University in the Gaza Strip, said the new unity government in Israel "has started the countdown to annexing the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which will negatively influence the peace process and the future of the Palestinian Authority."

Netanyahu has repeatedly stated on various occasions his intention to impose the Israeli sovereignty on the Jordan Valley which represents about 30 percent of the West Bank.

Ahmad Rafiq Awwad, a political analyst from Ramallah in the West Bank, warned that forming an Israeli coalition based on the principle of annexing the Palestinian lands "will lead to a miscarriage of the idea of establishing a Palestinian state."

"The annexation plan only means the Israeli government has chosen military occupation as the final and eternal approach," he noted.

Earlier in the year, U.S. President Donald Trump presented his so-called Middle East peace plan, better known as the Deal of the Century, which called for establishing two states while keeping Jerusalem the undivided eternal capital of Israel.

"Imposing Israeli sovereignty on the Jordan Valley and the areas of the settlements in the West Bank will mean entering a new phase that violates the Oslo interim peace agreement signed in 1993," said Hani Al-Masri, director of the Masarat Center for Research and Studies in Ramallah.

"The annexation of Palestinian lands will bring the Palestinian-Israeli conflict back to square one," al-Masri added.