The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned what it describes as a “provocative colonial incursion” by Netanyahu into the illegal Ofra settlement in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the ministry said the Israeli prime minister’s remarks in Ofra about “clinging to the land” and rejecting a Palestinian state represented “a deliberate reinforcement of the colonial, racist, and displacement-oriented occupation as part of a series of genocide, displacement, and annexation crimes”.

It warned that such actions and rhetoric provide “cover and encouragement for settler terrorist elements to commit further attacks against Palestinian citizens, their land, and their property, while dismissing international reactions to the settlements and settlers’ crimes”.

The ministry called on the international community to “mobilise more recognition of the State of Palestine” and enable it to gain full membership in the United Nations.