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View all search resultsIsrael hails, PA slams US offer of consular services in West Bank settlement
The US mission in Jerusalem said Tuesday that as part of an initiative to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, it would provide Americans with "routine passport services in Efrat on Friday, February 27... for one day only".
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Heavy machinery demolishes a Palestinian building near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 18, 2026. (Reuters/Mussa Qawasma)
I
srael welcomed Wednesday a decision by the US embassy to offer consular services in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority slammed it as a "violation of international law".
The US mission in Jerusalem said Tuesday that as part of an initiative to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, it would provide Americans with "routine passport services in Efrat on Friday, February 27... for one day only".
Efrat is a West Bank settlement home to about 12,000 Israelis and is located 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, are illegal under international law.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the US move.
"We... appreciate the important decision by the US embassy to extend consular services to Efrat, in Judea and Samaria," he said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.
"As America marks 250 years of independence, Israel stands proudly beside it," he added at an event marking the occasion.
The Palestinian Authority's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission condemned the move, saying in a statement that it "constitutes a clear violation of international law and a blatant favoring of the occupation authorities", referencing Israel.
Minister Muayyad Shubban, head of the commission, called on the US to reverse the decision, and on the international community to refrain from legitimizing the settlement system.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas also decried the US decision, describing it in a statement as "a dangerous step that supports (Israel's) Judaization plans".
The US embassy in Jerusalem also announced that such pop-up consular services will be provided in the next couple of months in another Israeli settlement, Beitar Illit, as well as in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and three cities inside Israel.
