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Settlement Expansion Approval
Cumulative number of approved settlement projects since 2022.
Primary Sources
Palestinians alarmed as Israel approves 34 new West Bank settlements ...
Israel has approved 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an NGO and Israeli media, causing concern among Palestinians that their land could soon be confiscated.Palestinians alarmed as Israel approves 34 new West Bank settlements"The security cabinet secretly decided to establish 34 new settlements," said the anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now of the decision taken on April 1.The 34 settlements come on top of 68 others already approved since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government came to power in 2022.The decision has not been officially published by any government body, and the defence ministry, in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank, declined to respond to AFP's questions."We are not addressing this issue," a spokesperson for the ministry told AFP.According to news channel i24News, 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision.The remaining 24 are yet to be built.All settlements are illegal under international law.In the Palestinian village of Deir Ammar, residents said they were worried that a settler outpost established on a hilltop near their area about a year ago would be one of the legalised settlements.According to a list of the 34 settlements published by the Palestinian Authority's Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, which deals with settlement matters, the location of the future settlement of Ramatim Tzofim matches that of the outpost near Deir Ammar, whose residents have been attacked at least three times by the new settlers.- 'We are finished ' -Nael Mussa, a farmer whose chicken coop and its adjacent farmhouse were attacked on several occasions, told AFP he feared the government decision would lead to more land grabs."We are effectively finished. If this becomes a settlement, we are finished in Deir Ammar. We will have no land left at all," 54-year-old Mussa told AFP.Palestinian farmer Ismail Awdeh expressed a similar sentiment."What we fear is that tomorrow this area will become a settlement and the land will be taken from us... of course it will grow," Awdeh said, referring to the settlement."This affects every resident in this area... This land is considered the food basket of the village," he told AFP.Residents said settlers placed rocks on a road used by farmers to reach their fields near the new outpost, and damaged an olive tree orchard there.News website Ynet reported th...
Israel 'secretly approves' 34 new settlements in occupied West Bank
Israel’s cabinet has approved the construction of 34 settlements in the occupied West Bank, a record number that pushes the Palestinian territory further towards annexation.The decision includes colonies in the far north of the West Bank, in areas that even the Israeli army “rarely reaches”, reported Israeli outlet i24 News. It said the cabinet decided to keep “the dramatic event” secret to avoid American condemnation. US President Donald Trump has previously said that Israeli annexation of the West Bank would not happen. Preliminary maps reveal a “systematic and widespread targeting of Palestinian lands”, especially in the north, said Muayyad Shaaban, a Palestinian official on settlement issues. He called the approval “an extremely dangerous leap”. Israel’s ultranationalist government, which contains many settlers, has significantly expanded its decades-long settlement programme under the cover of Israel’s regional wars since 2023. Settlements are illegal under international law.The latest approval follows a series of Israeli government steps to tighten its grip over the West Bank and destroy hopes for a two-state solution, most countries' preferred route to end the Israel-Palestine conflict. Addressing the report, left-wing Israeli politician Gilad Kariv said the Israeli government “continues its madness of de facto annexation”. He accused it of prioritising West Bank settlers over residents of northern Israel, which has been under fire from Hezbollah. Mr Kariv added that “every new settlement harms the [Israeli military’s] ability to defend” frontline areas within Israel. A Star of David daubed on a Palestinian family's house south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank. EPAInfo“Those who stay silent in the face of the establishment of dozens of new isolated settlements should not be surprised when they have to condemn acts of terror by extremist settlers,” he added, referring to the rise in settler violence in the West Bank. Citing several sources, the i24 News report said Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, was present at the cabinet meeting and “did not explicitly object, but had reservations due to manpower limitations”.Lt Gen Zamir recently said Israel’s military could “collapse in on itself” as it faces troop shortages and a rising number of deployments. Israeli anti-settlement activist Hagit Ofran said of the report: “The government knows its days are numbered and is trying to get as much done as possible.”She also accused the gove...
Israel approves 34 new West Bank settlements: media, NGO
RAMALLAH: Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken ...
Israel quietly approves 34 new West Bank settlements - MSN
On April 1, Israel's security cabinet approved the legalization of 34 settler outposts and farms in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli sources and watchdog group Peace Now.
