US EditionIsrael gives legal status to 19 West Bank settlements, media reports
Israel formalized 19 West Bank settlements, including two revived outposts, amid rising settler attacks and concerns over accelerating annexation and demographic changes, UN reports.
- 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.
35 Articles
35 Articles
The UN is sounding the alarm about the situation in the West Bank in a report consulted on Friday, 12 December. A new report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, transmitted to the Security Council, reveals that in 2025 the construction of Israeli settlements almost doubled compared to 2024, reaching a disturbing record level. In three years, it even quadrupled.
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.
Israel's settlement building makes it increasingly unlikely that the West Bank will one day become a coherent, sovereign Palestinian territory. The UN sees Palestinians' right to self-determination increasingly undermined - and criticizes the Israeli army.
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".
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