Rights group warns new settler outpost in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers have started setting up a new outpost in the town of Anata, east of occupied East Jerusalem, the Bedouin rights group Al-Baidar reported.

The settlers started installing temporary structures and laying foundations for makeshift homes, the group said, warning that a new Israeli settlement could lead to the displacement of Bedouin communities northeast of Jerusalem.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all of which have been built since Israel seized the territories in the 1967 Middle East war.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has built or approved around 48,000 settlement housing units since taking office, a figure expected to rise to 50,000, according to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Under international law, settlement construction in an occupied territory is illegal.