Israeli cabinet approves 19 new Jewish settlements in West Bank
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Israeli cabinet approves 19 new Jewish settlements in West Bank")
Newly constructed buildings are pictured in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the Palestinian city of Ramallah Photograph: (AFP (File Photo)
The United Nations condemned the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, warning that it threatens the viability of a sovereign Palestinian state.
Israel's security cabinet on Sunday (Dec 21) approved a proposal for 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. The new settlement includes two that were previously evacuated during a 2005 disengagement plan, according to Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who announced the plan and asserted that the move is aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” he said in the statement.
The approval brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, Smotrich wrote on X, marking a sharp increase of nearly 50 per cent during the current government's tenure from 141 in 2022 to 210.
Smotrich, who has been a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself, said, "We will continue to develop, build, and settle the land of our ancestral heritage, with faith in the justice of our path."
The latest decision comes days after the United Nations described the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law.
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Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, has recently criticised Israel's relentless efforts to expand settlements in the occupied territory. 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", he said earlier this month.
According to a UN report, the number of settlements reached its highest point since 2017, when the United Nations started tracking such data.
The development came as deliberations are underway on US President Donald Trump's Gaza Peace plan, which seeks to halt the conflict and secure a long-term peace between Israel and Hamas.
The US president recently warned against annexing territories in the West Bank, saying "Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened," he said in a recent interview with Time magazine.
