The Israeli group Peace Now said Wednesday that authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometres (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley.

The group's data indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo Accords at the start of the peace process.

The land seizure, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometres (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometres (1 square mile) in February.

That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank, Peace Now said.

The parcels are contiguous and located northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered. By declaring them state lands, the Israeli government has opened them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibited private Palestinian ownership.

Earlier in the day, Peace Now said the Higher Planning Committee, the defense body responsible for settlement planning, is set to approve the construction of over 6,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank at meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Israel's strongest ally the United States and most of the international community consider settlements to be illegal or obstacles to peace, and past settlement announcements have drawn international angry condemnations.

In late June, Egypt condemned the Israeli government's decision to approve the legalization of five more settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and its plans to build thousands of new settlement units in clear violation of international law and the UN Security Council resolutions.

The Israeli Security Cabinet legalized last week five outposts in the occupied West Bank; Evyatar, Givat Assaf, Sde Efraim, Heletz, and Adorayim, imposing further sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the approval as detrimental to the prospects for a viable Palestinian State.

Israel’s hard-line government is dominated by West Bank settlers and their allies.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to over 500,000 Israeli settlers. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule.

The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but is barred from operating in 60 percent of the territory, where the settlements are located.