Overview
- Israel's cabinet approved granting legal status to 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including two outposts evacuated in 2005 under the disengagement plan.
- The initiative was advanced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, reflecting the governing coalition's push to formalise settlements.
- Palestinian Authority minister Mu’ayyad Sha’ban called the decision "another step to erase Palestinian geography," and Hamas described it as a dangerous escalation.
- Most world powers and multiple UN Security Council resolutions consider Israeli settlement expansion illegal under international law.
- Israeli media reported the plan may have been coordinated with the United States in advance, a claim not independently confirmed, as UN data this year record high levels of settler-related violence and Palestinian casualties.