Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-17 20:15:10|Editor: Song Lifang

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JERUSALEM, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israel's government announced on Sunday that it will legalize children adoption by same-sex families by 2018.

Responding to a petition filed to the Supreme Court by same-sex couples, a representative of the State promised to the court that the government will start the legislation of a law to regulate equal adoption rights to same-sex couples.

The petition was filed by the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement, a progressive Jewish center.

"We will continue to monitor the legislative process," Riki Shapira, a lawyer who represented the petitioners, told the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.

"We will insist on the full implementation of the law in an egalitarian manner," she said.

The recent statement came after in its first response to the court, the State said it will not recognize gay family rights to adopt a child, stating such parenthood might harm the child.

Currently, in Israel, gay people can adopt a child if he or she are over five years old at the time of the adoption or the child was born and legally adopted outside Israel.