Under the pretext of unlicensed construction, the Israeli occupation continues to demolish Palestinian homes across the West Bank and seize Palestinian land, while simultaneously advancing its settlement project through the construction of new outposts.
Palestinian sources confirm that Israeli attacks on Palestinian property are continuing in the town of Shuqba, west of Ramallah. Land has also been bulldozed and buildings converted into military barracks in the village of Madama, south of Nablus.
In a new report, the Israeli organisation Peace Now documented a series of measures and decisions taken by the Israeli government to expand settlements across the West Bank, pointing to an accelerating process of annexation over more than three years.
The report outlines the following timeline of Israeli measures.
February 2023
The Israeli government decided to establish nine settlements by legalising ten settlement outposts.
June 2023
The Israeli government changed the settlement planning mechanism, removing the requirement for the defence minister’s approval at every stage of the planning approval process.
July 2024
The Israeli government decided to convert five settlement outposts into officially recognised settlements. In November of the same year, the Higher Planning Council began holding weekly meetings to accelerate the approval of settlement construction plans.
March 2025
The government approved the conversion of 13 settlement neighbourhoods into independent settlements.
May 2025
The establishment of 22 new settlements was announced.
August 2025
The occupation government gave final approval to plans for the construction of 3,400 settlement units in the E1 area, before publishing a construction tender in December. During the same month, the government also decided to establish 19 additional settlements.
March 2026
The occupation government approved the establishment of another 34 settlements.
A “Settlement Revolution”
Commenting on the accelerating pace of settlement expansion in the West Bank, settlement affairs expert Saher Khaliliyeh told Al Jazeera that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had itself acknowledged coming to power under the banner of a “settlement revolution”.
According to Khaliliyeh, the government has amended laws in ways that have enabled the establishment of hundreds of settlement outposts and entrenched settlement construction across the occupied territory.
The number of settlement outposts has risen to more than 360. Together with established settlements, they control more than 1.1 million dunams of land, representing more than 22 per cent of the total area of the West Bank.
Khaliliyeh said the occupation government had also changed and manipulated laws by transferring powers to the settlements council. As a result, 112,000 settlement units were approved over three years, including more than 78,000 units in the West Bank and more than 34,000 units in occupied Jerusalem.
The settlement affairs expert warned that the occupation’s actions form part of an integrated project. The construction of settlement units and the legalisation of outposts are being carried out alongside the expansion of bypass road networks and increased control over areas classified as Area C, around 80 per cent of which is now controlled by the settlements council.
Plans for an Autonomous Settler Entity
Khaliliyeh added that the settlements council and settlers are planning to establish an “independent autonomous entity for settlers in the West Bank”.
According to him, the proposed entity would hold extensive powers over territorial expansion and construction, possess economic capabilities and be supported by a dedicated settler army.
The settler forces are already involved in implementing settlement policies across the West Bank. Settlers move ahead of Israeli soldiers during attacks on Palestinians, cutting down trees, confiscating land and demolishing agricultural and pastoral structures.
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr Mustafa Barghouti, previously told Al Jazeera that the objective of the current Israeli government is annexation and Judaisation. He said the government believes it has a historic opportunity to implement its project and is therefore using settler gangs and settlement organisations to terrorise Palestinians.
Undermining the Two-State Solution
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is leading the settlement project. In a previous interview with the newspaper Israel Hayom, he said the project being implemented by the current government had created a “revolution” in the West Bank.
Smotrich said the objective was to create geographical continuity between Israeli settlements while breaking Palestinian geographical continuity into isolated areas.
He also confirmed that the government was racing against time to legalise as many settlement outposts and settler farms as possible before any future elections. The objective is to give them legal status that would make their evacuation more difficult for any future government that might adopt a different political direction.
In an extensive report, Haaretz argued that developments in the West Bank go beyond settlement expansion and represent an organised project to redraw the region’s political and geographical map, undermining the possibility of implementing a two-state solution.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has previously warned that Israeli settlement plans and military operations in the West Bank threaten the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state and undermine the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
