US Vice President JD Vance says President Donald Trump will oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and it will not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli MPs to that end looked like a stupid "political stunt".

A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, won preliminary approval from Israeli MPs on Wednesday.

Asked by reporters about the move, Vance said: "If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it."

Vance spoke after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that moves toward annexing the territory that Palestinians seek for part of an independent state could endanger Trump's plan to end the Gaza Strip war, which has yielded a shaky

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