Since the beginning of this year, the Israeli occupation authorities have approved the construction of 10,503 new settler units in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, compared to 9,971 settler units in all of 2024.
اضافة اعلان
According to a report released today, Tuesday, by the Israeli left-wing peace movement specializing in monitoring settlement activities, in June 2023, the Netanyahu-Smotrich government canceled direct political control over planning procedures in Palestinian territories. Until that decision, each stage in the settlement plans required prior approval from the Israeli Minister of Defense.
The report explained that after about a year and a half, in November 2024, a significant change occurred in the pace of approval for settlement plans in the occupied territories. Instead of one meeting every quarter, the Planning Council began meeting weekly and approving hundreds of settler units.
The movement pointed out that in this way, the Israeli government aims to normalize settlement planning and is also taking advantage of the war and focusing global attention primarily on Gaza to fill the settlement planning reserves, in order to have as many settlement plans as possible to be implemented in the future.
Estimates indicate that there are approximately 700,000 settlers in the settlements of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, residing in 164 settlements and 116 outposts established on Palestinian lands. Some of these settlements are built near Palestinian population centers, with one in Hebron located in the heart of the Palestinian city. In occupied East Jerusalem, there are 14 Israeli settlement neighborhoods that the international community considers illegal.
