Overview
- Israeli media reported the security cabinet granted legal status to 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including two outposts dismantled during the 2005 disengagement.
- The measure was advanced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz as part of a broader acceleration of settlement construction.
- Palestinian Authority minister Mu’ayyad Sha’ban condemned the decision as an effort to erase Palestinian geography, with Hamas and the Palestinian National Council also issuing strong denunciations.
- A UN report said plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved or tendered in 2025, the highest since at least 2017 and up from about 26,170 in 2024.
- UN humanitarian monitors documented rising violence in the West Bank this year, including at least 232 Palestinian deaths and more than 1,700 settler attacks, while Israeli outlets claimed US coordination that has not been independently verified.