Israel announces establishment of 11 new settlements in the West Bank

Israel has announced the creation of 11 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a decision that risks exacerbating tensions amidst efforts to begin the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.

The government is also set to legalise and recognise eight outpost and neighbourhoods of existing settlements that were so far regarded as illegal under Israeli law.

The new settlements were approved by the security cabinet on 12 December and was proposed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz.

This brings the total number of approved settlements under Smotrich's time in office since November 2022 to 69. 

The minister hailed the move as "a record like no other", adding in an X post that the "people of Israel are returning to their land, building it and strengthening their hold on it".

Kadim and Ganim, two of four settlements in the West Bank dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, are the latest to be legalised in this decision.

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

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers are authorised by the government to live in roughly 150 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.

There are also around 200 further unauthorised settler outposts. A ruling by the International Court of Justice in 2024 said that both types of Israeli settlements are unlawful under international law.

'Dangerous escalation'

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission and a minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA) Muayyad Shaban said the latest move constitutes "a war of extermination against Palestinian geography".

The Palestinian minister urged international involvement to stop what he described as a "dangerous escalation", which he says "reveals the true intentions of the occupation government to entrench the system of annexation, apartheid and the complete Judaisation of Palestinian land".

"The decision constitutes a blatant challenge to international law and Security Council resolutions, and sounds the alarm about the future of the West Bank, which is subjected to a systematic colonisation process aimed at uprooting the Palestinian presence and turning cities and villages into isolated and besieged enclaves."

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The announcement was also criticised internationally.

The British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, condemned the move in a post on X. 

"These are illegal under international law," he said, adding that it "risks undermining the 20-Point Plan" designed by US President Donald Trump to end the Gaza war, as well as "prospects for the long-term peace and security that only a two-state solution can deliver".

Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by troops and settlers. 

Israeli violence has soared in the past two years and has continued despite the ceasefire that came into effect in October.

The Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission said that in November alone there were around 2,144 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian civilians and their property, including 1,523 carried out by soldiers and 621 by settlers.