Israel has approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in a fresh blow to the possibility of a Palestinian state.
The move brings the number of new settlements over the past few years to 69, a new record, according to Israel‘s far-right finance minister Betzalel Smotrich.
Widely considered illegal under international law, the settlements have been criticised for fragmenting the territory of a future Palestinian state by confiscating land and displacing residents.
Under Israel’s current government, figures show, the number of settlements in the West Bank has surged by nearly 50%, rising from 141 in 2022, to 210 with the new approvals, according to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog.
The government’s latest action retroactively authorises some previously-established outposts or neighbourhoods of existing settlements, and the creation of settlements on land where Palestinians were evacuated.
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It also approves Kadim and Ganim, two of the four settlements dismantled in 2005, and which Israelis were previously banned from re-entering as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel repealed the 2005 act in March 2023, there have been multiple attempts to resettle them.
The move comes amid mounting pressure from the US to move ahead with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.
Mr Smotrich is one of a number of figures now prominent in Israel’s government who back the settlements.
The West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza are claimed by the Palestinians for their future state, but were captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
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Today over 500,000 Jews are settled in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 in contested east Jerusalem.
Settlements can range in size from a single dwelling to a collection of high-rises, and the occupied territories are also host to a number of unauthorised Israeli outposts.
