Overview
- Smotrich’s office said the security cabinet authorized 11 new settlements and granted legal status to eight outposts, with the vote taken on Dec. 11 and disclosed on Dec. 21.
- Two of the approved communities are Ganim and Kadim, which Israel evacuated in 2005 during its disengagement that also removed Gaza settlements.
- Peace Now reports the tally of recognized West Bank settlements has climbed from 141 in 2022 to about 210 after this decision, a near 50% rise under the current government.
- The approvals arrive as a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan references a possible pathway to Palestinian statehood, which Smotrich says the expansion is intended to thwart.
- UN and rights groups cite a surge in settler violence and note some sites are planned in densely populated Palestinian areas or on land from which residents were expelled, with UN data recording record attack rates during the October olive harvest.