US EditionIsrael gives legal status to 19 West Bank settlements, media reports
The legalization includes two former outposts evacuated in 2005 amid a surge of settler attacks, with over 1,700 recorded by the UN in the West Bank this year.
- On Dec 12, Israel's cabinet formalised 19 West Bank settlements, including two evacuated in 2005 under Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.
- A push from Smotrich and Katz drove the cabinet decision as settlement construction increased under Israel's far-right governing coalition, fragmenting the West Bank.
- Israeli media reported Ynet said the plan was coordinated with the US and Channel 14 linked it to Bezalel Smotrich, with some settlements being newly established and others older.
- The Palestinian Authority condemned the decision Friday, with Mu'ayyad Sha'ban warning it erases Palestinian geography, while Hamas and the Palestinian National Council called it an escalation and urged international action.
- Amid rising violence, the approval arrives as UN OCHA data document killings and displacements with at least 232 Palestinians killed including 52 children, more than 1,700 settler attacks, and over 1,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced this year in the West Bank, home to 2.7 million Palestinians.
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30 Articles
Israel gives legal status to 19 West Bank settlements, media reports
Israel's cabinet has decided to give legal status to 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including two that were vacated 20 years ago under a pullout aimed at boosting the country's security and the economy, Israeli media reported.
According to the UN, in 2025 more than 47,000 housing units were created in settlements in the West Bank, much more than in 2024.
"These developments are still rooting the illegal Israeli occupation and violating international law and the right of Palestinians to self-determination," said Antonio Guterres.
The progress of colonization is also accompanied by an "aware" increase in settler violence, says Antonio Guterres in the report, referring to attacks sometimes "in the presence or with the support of the Israeli security forces".
Israeli settlers attack Palestinians with impunity, halting West Bank olive harvest
Israel's cabinet voted to extend legal status to 19 previously illegal settlements late last night, formalizing more control of land in the West Bank. Attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian communities there have increased sharply since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel. As Leila Molana-Allen tells us, the settlers' violence continues with few apparent consequences.
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