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JERUSALEM: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank after Britain, Canada and Australia recognized a Palestinian state.
"For years, I have prevented the creation of this terror state despite enormous pressure both domestically and internationally," he said in a statement.
"We have done so with determination and political wisdom. Moreover, we have doubled Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and we will continue on this path," he said using the Biblical name for the West Bank.
Netanyahu on Sunday accused foreign leaders of giving a “prize” to Hamas.

He put out an angry statement after Britain and other Western allies said they were unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state in a step seen as a show of displeasure with Israel.
Netanyahu added: “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Netanyahu said he would announce Israel’s response after a trip to the US, where he is to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.
He is set to give a speech to the General Assembly on Friday before heading to see Trump.
The UK has for decades supported an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, but insisted recognition must come as part of a peace plan to achieve a two-state solution.
However, the government has become increasingly worried that such a solution is becoming all but impossible – and not only because of the razing of Gaza and displacement of most of its population during nearly two years of conflict, which has seen more than 65,000 people killed in Gaza, displaced around 90 percent of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Last week, independent experts commissioned by the UN’s Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Also vexing the UK is Israel’s government has been aggressively expanding settlements in the West Bank, land Palestinians want for their future state. 
Much of the world regards Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, which is ostensibly run by the Palestinian Authority, as illegal.
“This move has symbolic and historic weight, makes clear the U.K.’s concerns about the survival of a two-state solution, and is intended to keep that goal relevant and alive,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK in the World Programme at the London-based think tank, Chatham House.
For the Palestinians, President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that Sunday’s moves constituted an important and necessary step toward achieving a just peace in accordance with international law.
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian head of mission in the UK, said that recognition would right a colonial-era wrong. 
“The issue today is ending the denial of our existence that started 108 years ago, in 1917,” he said. 
“And I think today, the British people should celebrate a day when history is being corrected, when wrongs are being righted, when recognition of the wrongs of the past are beginning to be corrected.”
A senior Hamas official hailed Britain, Canada and Australia's recognition of a Palestinian state, describing it as a victory for the rights of Palestinians.
"These developments represent a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause, and send a clear message: no matter how far the occupation goes in its crimes, it will never be able to erase our national rights," Mahmoud Mardawi said

DAMASCUS, Syria: Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday to take part in the UN General Assembly, the first president of Syria to do so in nearly six decades.
The last time a Syrian head of state attended the General Assembly was in 1967. That was before the 50-year rule of the Assad family dynasty, which came to an end in December when then-President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning insurgent offensive led by Al-Sharaa. Assad’s fall also brought to an end nearly 14 years of civil war.
Since then, Al-Sharaa has sought to restore ties with Arab countries and the West, where officials were initially wary of his past ties with the Al-Qaeda militant group. The rebel group he formerly led, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, was previously designated by the United States as a terrorist group.
Since assuming power, Al-Sharaa has preached coexistence and sought to reassure Syria’s minority communities, but the country’s fragile recovery has been threatened by outbreaks of sectarian violence. Fighters affiliated with the new government were also accused of killing hundreds of civilians from the Druze and Alawite religious minorities.
Along with his appearance at the UN General Assembly, Al-Sharaa is likely to use his visit to push for further sanctions relief for Syria as it attempts to rebuild its war-battered economy and infrastructure.
US President Donald Trump met with Al-Sharaa in ����ֱ�� in May and announced that he would lift decades of sanctions imposed on Syria under the Assads’ rule.
He followed through by ordering a large swathe of sanctions lifted or waived. However, the most stringent sanctions were imposed by Congress under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act passed in 2019 and will require a congressional vote to permanently remove them.
Another topic that will loom large during Al-Sharaa’s visit is his country’s relations with US ally Israel. Since Assad’s fall, Israel has been suspicious of Al-Sharaa’s government and has seized a formerly UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military sites.
Negotiations have been underway for a security deal that Al-Sharaa has said he hopes will bring about a withdrawal of Israeli forces and return to a 1974 disengagement agreement. While Al-Sharaa said last week that a deal could be reached in a matter of days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in remarks Sunday appeared to downplay the odds of a breakthrough.
“There is some progress” but the deal is “still a vision for the future,” he said.
Also on Sunday, Syrian elections officials announced that the country’s first parliamentary elections since the fall of Assad will take place on Oct. 5. The members of the People’s Assembly will not be chosen via a direct popular vote, however, but through an electoral college system with electoral bodies in each province voting for two-thirds of the seats, while Al-Sharaa will directly appoint one third.
Officials have said that holding direct elections at this stage would be too logistically challenging since many Syrians have lost personal documentation or are living as refugees abroad after the nearly 14-year civil war.