The Israeli government has approved 5,295 new housing units in a number of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, in addition to recognizing three new settlements on Palestinian territory, according to a monitoring group.
Israeli NGO Peace Now reported the move on Thursday, a day after the group said Israel's government had approved the largest land seizure in the West Bank in more than three decades.
Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian land is illegal under international law and their expansion is considered a major obstacle to the viability of a future Palestinian state.
The new approvals are sure to further fuel tensions at a time when Palestinians across the occupied West Bank face increased incursions by Israeli forces and settlers amid Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
“Our government continues to change the rules of the game in the occupied West Bank, causing irreversible damage,” Peace Now said in a statement on Thursday, condemning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich, who is a settler, has overseen a significant escalation of settlement expansion under Netanyahu’s leadership. He is also one of the far-right politicians the prime minister has come to rely on for his political survival.
“This annexationist government is seriously undermining the security and future of both Israelis and Palestinians, and the cost of this recklessness will be paid for generations to come,” said Peace Now, which also condemned the appointment of Smotrich's key allies to the settlement-approved body.
More than 500,000 Israeli citizens live in more than 100 settlements across the West Bank. Their existence remains a major obstacle to the since-suspended plans outlined in the Oslo Accords that promised the gradual transfer of Israeli-controlled areas to the Palestinians.
Peace Now said the latest approved settlements, all of which have existed since the late 2010s as unofficial outposts, were Givat Hanan, Kedem Arava and Machane Gadi in the Jordan Valley.
Israel's Higher Planning Council (HPC) justified the approval by saying the outposts were existing “neighborhoods” of existing settlements, despite being physically separated from those settlements, the group said.
The watchdog added that the new settlements were distinct from five other new settlements approved by the cabinet last week.
'Totally unacceptable'
The approval of the new settlements comes just a day after Peace Now reported that Israel had declared some 23.7 square kilometers (9.15 square miles) of land in the occupied West Bank as its own so far this year, a rate the group said was unprecedented.
This included approving the confiscation of 12.7 square kilometers (4.9 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley late last month.
On Thursday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide called the latest actions “totally unacceptable.”
“Norway condemns these decisions and calls on the Government of Israel to reverse them immediately,” it said in a statement, denouncing the government's policy of “dispossession, confiscation of land and establishment of illegal settlements.”
Norway joined Spain and Ireland in May to become the latest countries to formally recognise a Palestinian state.
Settlements have also been a rare area where the United States has been willing to directly confront its “ironclad” ally Israel, although critics have said Washington has neglected to use the levers at its disposal to pressure Israel.
On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that “unilateral actions such as expanding settlements and legalizing outposts” were “detrimental to a two-state solution.”
“We will continue to use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who threaten peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Israeli military and settler violence in the occupied West Bank has increased since Israel's war on Gaza began. Some three million Palestinians in the territory are subject to Israeli military rule.
Since October, at least 553 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank and 9,510 have been detained, according to Palestinian officials.
At least 38,011 people have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza since October, according to Palestinian authorities.
Israel launched the assault on Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics.
