Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

The Israeli security cabinet has approved a series of far-reaching changes expanding the powers of Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank and making it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land in the Palestinian territory.

The moves are the latest in a string of steps taken by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to tighten Israel’s grip on the West Bank, which Palestinians seek as the heart of a future state but which Israel has subjected to a military occupation for more than half a century.

Israel’s ultranationalist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has long called for Israel to annex the territory, said the moves would “fundamentally change the legal and civil reality” in the West Bank and that the government was “burying the idea of ​​a Palestinian state”.

The changes, approved on Sunday, abolish a provision preventing Jewish private citizens from buying land in the West Bank and remove Palestinian officials from decisions on building permits in the Jewish settlement in Hebron, including at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews.

They also give Israeli authorities powers to take action, such as carrying out property demolitions, against people deemed responsible for environmental hazards, water offences and damage to archaeological sites in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In a joint statement with defence minister Israel Katz, Smotrich said Israel would also re-establish a land acquisition committee that would “proactively” buy up land in the West Bank.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the moves as “de facto annexation of Palestinian land” and called on US President Donald Trump, who said last year that he opposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank, to intervene.

“The ministry condemns Israel’s desperate attempts to impose a fait accompli through colonial settlement and changing the legal reality and status of the occupied Palestinian land,” the ministry said.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The moves are the latest in a string of measures taken by Netanyahu’s government — in which ultranationalist settlers such as Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wield significant influence — to entrench Israeli control of the West Bank.

Since taking office in 2022, the government has embarked on a massive expansion of settlements, which are illegal under international law, and sharply ratcheted up land seizures. It has also retroactively “legalised” settlement outposts that even Israel previously deemed illegal.

Peace Now, an Israeli NGO that monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, said Sunday’s decisions were “a direct violation of the international agreements to which Israel is committed”, including the Oslo Accords, which temporarily divided the West Bank into areas known as A, B and C.

Under the Accords, the PA was to administer Areas A and B, with Israel maintaining security control of the latter. Area C was to be controlled by Israel, which was meant to gradually transfer the territory to Palestinian jurisdiction, subject to land swaps in a final deal.

However, the transfer never took place, and successive Israeli governments have expanded settlements in the territory. Since Netanyahu’s administration took office, there has also been a surge in settler violence that has forced dozens of Palestinian communities off their land in Area C.

The cabinet’s decision shows that this was about ‘‘breaking every possible barrier on the path to massive land theft in the West Bank”, Peace Now said.