Overview
- The cabinet approved formal recognition or regulation of 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the reinstatement of Ganim and Kadim that were evacuated in 2005.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said this brings the total approved under the current government to 69, and Peace Now counts roughly 210 settlements now in the West Bank, up from 141 in 2022.
- Peace Now reported the decision also retroactively legalizes several longstanding outposts or neighborhoods and creates settlements on lands from which Palestinians were evacuated.
- The UN and most international legal interpretations deem West Bank settlements illegal, and the UN has warned the current pace of expansion is the highest since its monitoring began in 2017.
- UN data documented a surge in settler attacks during the October olive harvest and rights groups reported a large East Jerusalem demolition leaving dozens homeless, as Defense Minister Israel Katz separately said the government plans future Nahal‑type settlements in northern Gaza.