TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's Cabinet approved a proposal for 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, the far-right finance minister said on Sunday.
It is the latest step by the far-right government to push ahead with a construction binge in the occupied territory that further threatens the possibility of a Palestinian state.
The settlements include two that were previously evacuated during a 2005 disengagement plan, according to Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who has pushed a settlement expansion agenda in the West Bank.
It brings the total number of new settlements over the past few years to 69, Smotrich wrote on X.
The approval increases the number of settlements in the West Bank by nearly 50% during the current government’s tenure. In 2022, there were 141 settlements across the West Bank. After the current approval, there are now 210 settlements, according to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group. Settlements are widely considered illegal under international law.
Settlements are the latest blow to the Palestinian state
The approval comes as the U.S. is pushing Israel and Hamas to move ahead with the new phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which took effect Oct. 10. The U.S.-brokered plan calls for a possible “pathway” to a Palestinian state — something the settlements are aimed at preventing.
The Cabinet decision included a retroactive legalization of some previously established settlement outposts or neighborhoods of existing settlements, and the creation of settlements on land where Palestinians were evacuated, Peace Now said.
It said two of the settlements legalized in the latest approval are Kadim and Ganim, which were two of the four West Bank settlements dismantled in 2005 as part of its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. There have been multiple attempts to resettle these, after Israel's far-right government repealed a 2005 act that evacuated the four outposts and barred Israelis from reentering the areas in March 2023.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza — areas claimed by the Palestinians for a future state — in the 1967 war. It has settled over 500,000 Jews in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 more in contested east Jerusalem.
Israel's government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement, including Smotrich and Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation's police force.
Settler expansion has been compounded by a surge of attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months.
During October's olive harvest, settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily, the most since the United Nations humanitarian office began collecting data in 2006. The attacks continued in November, with the U.N. recording at least 136 more by Nov. 24.
Settlers burned cars, desecrated mosques, ransacked industrial plants and destroyed cropland. Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence.
Two Palestinians killed in West Bank clashes, Health Ministry said
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed in clashes with the Israeli military on Saturday night in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military said a militant was shot and killed after he threw a block at Israeli troops in Qabatiya on Saturday night, and another militant was killed after he hurled explosives at Israeli troops operating in the town of Silat al-Harithiya.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the Palestinian killed in Qabatiya as 16-year-old Rayan Abu Muallah. Palestinian media aired brief security footage of the incident, where the youth appears to emerge from an alley and is shot by troops as he approaches them without throwing anything. The Israeli military said the incident is under review.
The Health Ministry identified the second man as Ahmad Ziyoud, 22. He was buried on Sunday in Silat al-Harithiya, near Jenin.
Israel’s military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Cardinal celebrates Christmas mass in Gaza City
The top Catholic leader in the Holy Land visited the Gaza Strip's only Catholic church and celebrated a pre-Christmas mass for dozens of faithful on Sunday. Dozens of Palestinians gathered in the Holy Family Parish for the mass, which included the baptism of a baby named Mario.
The Holy Family compound was hit by fragments from an Israeli shell in July, killing three people in what Israel then called an accident and expressed regret over.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrived on Friday for his fourth visit to Gaza since the war began, and said the Christian community aims to be a "stable, solid reference point in this sea of destruction" as the rebuilding slowly begins. Over the weekend, Pizzaballa visited hospitals and humanitarian projects, including meeting families living in a displaced persons camp along the Gaza seafront, the Latin Patriarchate said.
___
Find more of AP's Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
