Israel recognises 3 outposts, approves 5,295 housing units in West Bank

Israel’s government has recognised three new settlement outposts built on Palestinian land and authorised the construction of 5,295 new housing units in several illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, an Israeli advocacy group has reported.

Peace Now, which monitors settlement expansion, warned yesterday that the new approvals are likely to escalate tensions, especially as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank endure intensified raids by Israeli forces and settlers amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

“Our government continues to change the rules of the game in the occupied West Bank, leading to irreversible harm,” Peace Now said in a statement

The rights group also condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was appointed to the body that approves settlements.

“This annexationist government severely undermines the security and future of both Israelis and Palestinians, and the cost of this recklessness will be paid for generations to come,” it said.

The latest approved settlements include Givat Hanan, Kedem Arava and Machane Gadi in the Jordan Valley.

READ: EU condemns Israel latest move to expand illegal settlements in West Bank

According to Al Jazeera, Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC) justified the approvals by labelling the outposts as “neighbourhoods” of existing settlements, despite their physical separation from those illegal settlements.

The approvals come just a day after Israel’s government approved the largest land seizure in the West Bank in over 30 years.

Peace Now revealed that Israel had claimed approximately 23.7 square kilometres (9.15 square miles) of land in the occupied West Bank this year. This land acquisition includes the recent approval to seize 12.7 square kilometres (4.9 square miles) in the Jordan Valley last month.

Settlement outposts are small communities established by illegal Israeli settlers on privately owned Palestinian land without approval from the Israeli government.

Estimates indicate that around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Jewish settlements and outposts in the Occupied Territories are considered illegal under international law.

READ: Israel confiscates 24m square metres of land in West Bank for illegal settlements