A Palestinian official in the occupied West Bank has described Israel's latest expansion of control there as the end of the road for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Asma al-Sharabati, acting mayor of Hebron, said new legal changes recently announced by Israeli cabinet ministers would leave Palestinian authorities shut out of decisions on urban planning and development, even in areas under Palestinian control.
Hebron is a regular flashpoint in the West Bank - a divided city, where soldiers guard hundreds of Israeli settlers living alongside Palestinians in an Israeli military garrison.
On Sunday, the Israeli security cabinet passed major changes to the established division of powers in the West Bank, set up three decades ago under the US-backed Oslo Accords, signed by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
They include expanding Israeli control beyond its military occupation, into the provision of municipal services in Palestinian-run areas, as well as broad powers to take over so-called heritage sites across the West Bank – to protect water, environmental and archaeological resources, they say.
Israel's plans to take over planning authority at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, which sits inside the city's Ibrahimi Mosque, further exemplify these new measures.
The expansion of Israeli presence has continued despite international focus on the Gaza Strip, raising concerns among Palestinians about their future and rights under occupation.
The implications of these changes threaten not only the secular agreements between Israel and the Palestinians but also the remnants of local governance in areas once considered under Palestinian authority.
