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Israeli Cabinet Approves 13 New West Bank Settlements
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on July 6 that settlement expansion now extends beyond the West Bank. The cabinet recently approved 13 new settlements along Route 60 and toward the Jordan Valley. Outpost construction has risen sharply since 2023.
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Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared on July 6 that Israel has launched a revolution in settlement expansion that will extend illegal outposts into the Negev and Galilee. The statement followed the Israeli cabinet's recent approval of 13 new settlements in the central occupied West Bank.
The new settlements will be located along Route 60 and in areas extending eastward toward the Jordan Valley, according to Israeli officials.
Al Jazeera reported that Palestinian officials warned the projects would further isolate occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Data from the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies showed outpost construction rising from an annual average of about eight between 2012 and 2022 to 32 in 2023, 62 in 2024, and 86 in 2025.
The 2024 projects received 75 million shekels in government funding.
An estimated 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and 250,000 in occupied East Jerusalem. A United Nations inquiry recorded a 130 percent increase in settler attacks on Palestinian villages and agricultural land since 2023. In May the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission documented 1,659 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank, with settlers responsible for 551 of them.
The same month saw 7,222 trees destroyed, including more than 3,300 olive trees, and 70 demolition operations that destroyed 155 Palestinian structures. Since October 8, 2023, combined violence by Israeli forces and settlers has killed 1,175 Palestinians and injured 12,919 in the occupied West Bank.
About 24,000 Palestinians have been arrested and 33,000 displaced from their homes during the same period.
