Widely considered illegal under international law, the settlements have been criticised for fragmenting the territory of a future Palestinian<\/a> state by confiscating land and displacing residents.<\/p>\n Image: Under Israel’s current government, figures show, the number of settlements in the West Bank<\/a> has surged by nearly 50%, rising from 141 in 2022, to 210 with the new approvals, according to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog.<\/p>\n The government’s latest action retroactively authorises some previously-established outposts or neighbourhoods of existing settlements, and the creation of settlements on land where Palestinians were evacuated.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n \n Earlier this month: Inside an illegal Israeli outpost\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n It also approves Kadim and Ganim, two of the four settlements dismantled in 2005, and which Israelis were previously banned from re-entering as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n Since Israel repealed the 2005 act in March 2023, there have been multiple attempts to resettle them.<\/p>\n Image: The move comes amid mounting pressure from the US to move ahead with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.<\/p>\n Mr Smotrich is one of a number of figures now prominent in Israel’s government who back the settlements.<\/p>\n The West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza are claimed by the Palestinians for their future state, but were captured by Israel in the 1967 war.<\/p>\n Read more: Today over 500,000 Jews are settled in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 in contested east Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Settlements can range in size from a single dwelling to a collection of high-rises, and the occupied territories are also host to a number of unauthorised Israeli outposts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in a fresh blow to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-204055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ganim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-ganim-west-bank-israel_7116923.jpg\")
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\n Ganim pictured in 2005. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-west-bank-settlers_7107929.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Betzalel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-betzalel-smotrich-israel_7116930.jpg\")
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\n Betzalel Smotrich is among prominent names backing the settlements. Pic: AP<\/p>\n
Analysis: Gaza longs for normality, but quasi-anarchy reigns<\/a>
Two brothers killed in Israeli drone strike on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n