A resident of the Nur Shams refugee camp walks through concrete blocks while carrying belongings retrieved from her home ahead of the Israeli military’s demolition of residential buildings in the camp near Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank . AFP
The statement revealed that the cabinet approved a joint proposal with Defence Minister Israel Katz to “legalize and regulate” the settlements. Several of the approved sites are located in areas Israel considers strategically significant, including the re-establishment of the Ganim and Kadim settlements in the northern West Bank, near Jenin, which were unilaterally dismantled by Tel Aviv in 2005.
The move comes amid a sharp escalation in Israeli settlement activity. In a report circulated to members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), UN Secretary-General António Guterres said settlement expansion in 2025 had “reached its highest level since the United Nations began systematically monitoring these developments in 2017.”
He added that “overall, approximately 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or put out to tender, compared with around 26,170 in 2024. These figures represent a clear increase compared to previous years,” noting an average of about 12,800 settlement units annually between 2017 and 2022.
“I condemn the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which continues to fuel tensions, prevents Palestinians from accessing their land, and threatens the viability of an independent, democratic, contiguous, and fully sovereign Palestinian state,” Guterres stated. “All settlements are illegal and invalid, representing a clear violation of international law,” he affirmed.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on Israel to bring the occupation to an end. The court cited settlement construction and expansion, annexation measures, and discriminatory policies against Palestinians as key violations.
More than 750,000 Israeli settlers now live among roughly three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to UN figures.
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
At least 1,097 Palestinians have been killed and around 11,000 wounded in military operations and settler attacks, while more than 21,000 Palestinians have been arrested, according to Palestinian and UN data.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said settler violence over the past two years has killed at least 28 Palestinians, injured more than 1,450 others, and displaced at least 2,800 people from dozens of rural communities through direct attacks or sustained pressure.
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