Overview
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the cabinet approved his and Defense Minister Israel Katz’s proposal to declare and formalize 19 settlements in the occupied territory.
- Peace Now reports the move lifts the total number of formal settlements from 141 in 2022 to 210, with 69 newly authorized under the current government.
- The package retroactively legalizes several outposts and includes two sites cleared in Israel’s 2005 disengagement, identified by watchdogs as Kadim and Ganim.
- The UAE, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia condemned the approvals as violations of international law, while UN bodies maintain all settlement expansion is illegal.
- The step comes as Washington pursues a Gaza ceasefire path linked to potential statehood talks, with observers also noting a surge in settler attacks on Palestinians over the past year.