TEL ALVIV, April 27 (CGTN) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he was confident the United States would give Israel the approval within two months to move ahead with de facto annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians have expressed outrage at Israel's plans to cement its hold further on the land it seized in the 1967 war, part of the territory they are seeking for a future state.

Netanyahu, in announcing a deal with his rival Benny Gantz last week to form a unity government, set July 1 for the start of cabinet discussions on extending Israeli sovereignty to its settlements, illegal under international law, in the occupied West Bank and annexing outright the Jordan Valley.

Meanwhile, Israel's Labor party voted on Sunday to join the unity government with some 64.2 percent of members of the central committee voting in favor of the move, the party said in a statement.

Such a move would need to be agreed with Washington, according to the Netanyahu-Gantz agreement.

In a video address on Sunday to a pro-Israeli Christian group in Europe, Netanyahu described the Middle East plan announced by President Donald Trump in January as a promise to recognize Israel's authority over Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Palestinians have flatly rejected the Trump proposal, which awards Israel most of what it has sought during decades of conflict, including nearly all the occupied land on which it has been builting settlements.

The Palestinians and much of the international community regard Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank as illegal under the Geneva Conventions that bar settling on land captured in war.

The United Nations and the Arab League (AL) reiterated their rejection of the Israeli intentions to announce annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, the pan-Arab body said in a statement last Saturday.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital along the pre-1967 borders based on the UN-proposed two-state solution.

The United States, Israel's main backer, officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in late 2017 and relocated the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018.