Israel plans to approve nearly 2,000 new illegal settlement units in occupied West Bank
Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich says nearly 30,000 settlement units have been approved this year, calling it an "unprecedented achievement."
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that the Higher Planning Council will approve the construction of 1,973 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank during its next session.
He did not specify when the council will meet, Israeli Channel 12 reported.
The announcement came a day after Israel approved the building of 1,300 settler homes in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of occupied East Jerusalem.
Smotrich said Israeli authorities have approved nearly 30,000 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank this year, describing it as an "unprecedented achievement" for his government.
The Palestinian group Hamas denounced the Israeli move as a "dangerous escalation in the policy of Judaisation and settlement expansion targeting Palestinian land deep inside the West Bank."
"These settlement plans constitute a blatant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions that criminalise settlement construction," it said in a statement.
According to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government took office in late 2022, Israel has advanced plans for around 48,000 settlement units in the West Bank, averaging roughly 17,000 units per year.
In August, the government granted final approval for the "E1" settlement plan, which includes about 3,400 housing units near the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.
The Israeli rights group Peace Now has described the E1 plan as a "fatal blow" to the two-state solution, saying it would separate the northern and southern West Bank and isolate East Jerusalem.
The UN has repeatedly affirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, warning they undermine prospects for a two-state solution.
Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, based on international resolutions that do not recognise Israel’s 1967 occupation or its 1980 annexation of the city.