The number of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank has reached 592, with Israel controlling about 42 percent of the territory, a Palestinian government body said.
The figures were published by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission in a briefing on key indicators of Israeli settlement expansion and control of Palestinian land.
The commission said 780,000 illegal Israeli settlers were living in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, as of the end of July.
Of those, around 333,600 live in illegal settlements in Jerusalem, and 446,400 elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.
Illegal Israeli settlers are spread across 192 illegal settlements and 400 settlement outposts, including 231 pastoral outposts, according to the commission.
Official Israeli orders show that Israeli control extends to 42 percent of the occupied West Bank’s area of some 5,660 square kilometres, said the commission.