The Israeli Parliament has approved measures to annex the West Bank in a landslide vote.

The Knesset voted 71-13 in favour of the motion on Wednesday.

Although the colonisation of the West Bank has occurred since 1967, the vote formalises Israel’s further expansion, with reports of collusion between the IDF and Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

The motion calls for “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley”, displaying just how openly ministers can call for the colonisation, and by extension ethnic cleansing, of large swathes of the Middle East.

The measures come as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, where 115 people have died in the last 24 hours. 

France has just moved to recognise Palestine as a state, becoming the first G7 nation to do so, raising questions over how they will respond when a recognised state is colonised without supposed cause.