JERUSALEM: Israel's security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number approved over the past three years to 69, an official statement said Sunday.
“The proposal by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz to declare and formalize 19 new settlements in Judea and Samaria has been approved by the cabinet,” a statement from Smotrich’s office said, without specifying when the decision was taken.
“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state. We will continue to develop, build and settle the land of our ancestral heritage, with faith in the justice of our path,” Smotrich said in the statement.
Relentless expansion
Earlier this month, a report by the UN chief seen by AFP said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank was at its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking such data.
In 2025, “plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved or tendered, compared with some 26,170 in 2024,” the report said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the “relentless” expansion, saying it “continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state.”
“These figures represent a sharp increase compared to previous years,” he added, noting an average of 12,815 housing units were added annually between 2017 and 2022.
Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.
“These developments are further entrenching the unlawful Israeli occupation and violating international law and undermining the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,” Guterres said.
Guterres also condemned the “continued escalation of violence and tensions in the occupied West Bank,” pointing out operations by the Israeli Defense Forces in the northern West Bank that have killed a “high number” of people, displaced residents and destroyed homes and other infrastructure.
In October, Pakistan strongly condemned Israel’s attempt to extend its so-called “sovereignty” over parts of the occupied West Bank, including illegal Israeli settlements, saying the move constituted a violation of international law, relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and the rights of the Palestinian people.
