Palestinian officials condemn Compelling driver of new settlements Israel has established three outposts in the occupied West Bank, including retroactively authorizing three outposts.
The move will further heighten tensions in the region, which has seen a surge in violence since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7.
Palestinians claim the West Bank as part of their desired future state. Although Israel disagrees, the settlements are widely considered illegal under international law.
The three unauthorized outposts, now legalized under Israeli law, are described as new communities for existing settlements. They are located in sensitive areas of the Jordan Valley and near the southern city of Hebron.
Separately, Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday that Israeli authorities have approved or advanced plans to build 5,295 housing units in dozens of settlements.
There was also news this week that the Israeli government’s High Planning Council approved the largest land seizure in the West Bank in more than three decades.
Approximately 12,700 dunams (5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley have been confiscated and declared Israeli state land. This year marks the peak of state-owned land declarations, with a total of 23,700 dunams of land affected.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeinah said the new statement confirmed that Israel’s “extremist government is bound by right-wing war and settlement policies”.
He said the latest measures would not “achieve security and peace for anyone” and were aimed at preventing the creation of a geographically connected Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.
Last week, Israel’s security cabinet decided to retroactively authorize the construction of five settlement outposts without official government approval.
The United Nations, Britain and other countries condemned the move as undermining hopes for a two-state solution.
The Foreign Office said: “Israel must stop illegal settlement expansion and hold those responsible for extreme settler violence to account.”
“The UK’s priority is to end the conflict in Gaza as quickly and sustainably as possible and to secure lasting peace in the Middle East through an irreversible two-state solution.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment on the overall West Bank strategy.
However, far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement, welcomed the latest move. “We are building good lands and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said on social media platform X on Wednesday.
Excluding annexed East Jerusalem, approximately 500,000 settlers live in the West Bank alongside 3 million Palestinians. Last year, Smotrich directed government agencies to prepare to double the number of settlers to one million.
Since Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to expand. However, expansion has increased dramatically since Mr Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 to lead a hardline pro-settler governing coalition.
Last month, Peace Now released an audio recording of Smotrich delivering a speech to his Religious Zionist party, in which he proposed transferring management of settlements from the military to civilian officials and Expand agricultural outposts.
Peace Now warned that the plan would irreversibly change the way the West Bank is governed and lead to “a de facto annexation”.
