The Israeli cabinet approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the West Bank

Israel’s Cabinet approved a proposal for 19 new settlements in the West Bank, the territory occupied by Israel, a right-wing extremist minister reported on Sunday.

It is the latest move by the far-right government to spur a wave of construction in the occupied territories, further threatening the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The settlements including two who were evacuated as part of a withdrawal plan in 2005said Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who has pushed an agenda to expand settlements in the West Bank.

Smotrich wrote in This brings the total number of new settlements in recent years to 69.

Approval is increasing The number of settlements in the West Bank has increased by almost 50% during the current government’s term, from 141 in 2022 to 210. According to Peace Now, as currently approved, it is an anti-settlement monitoring group. These colonies are considered illegal under international law.

The approval comes amid pressure from the United States on Israel and Hamas to move forward with the new phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, which came into force on October 10. The Washington-brokered plan proposes a possible “pathway” to a Palestinian state, something the settlements want to prevent.

The Cabinet’s decision included the retroactive legalization of some outposts According to Peace Now, these include already established settlements or neighborhoods within existing settlements, as well as the creation of settlements in areas from which Palestinians have been evacuated.

It said two of the settlements were legalized in the latest approval They are Kadim and Ganim, These were two of four settlements in the West Bank that were dismantled in 2005 as part of their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. There were several attempts to relocate them after Israel’s far-right government repealed a 2005 law in March 2023 that required the evacuation of the four outposts and a ban on Israelis re-entering the areas.

In the 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – areas that the Palestinians claimed for a future state.. It has settled more than 500,000 Jews in the West Bank and more than 200,000 in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli government is dominated by far-right supporters of the settler movement, including Smotrich and Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads the country’s police force.

The spread of settlers was accompanied by an increase in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months.

During the olive harvest in October, settlers across the territory carried out an average of eight attacks per day, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, the most since data collection began in 2006. Attacks continued in November. as the UN registered at least 136 more as of November 24.

Settlers burned cars, desecrated mosques and looted industrial facilities and destroyed farmland. Israeli authorities have done little beyond occasional condemnation of the violence.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed in clashes with the Israeli army in the northern West Bank last night.

The Israeli military said a militant He was killed after throwing a block at the military in Qabatiya on Saturday evening, and another was killed after throwing explosives at soldiers operating in the town of Silat al-Harithiya.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the Palestinian killed in Qabatiya as 16-year-old Rayan Abu Muallah. Palestinian media broadcast brief security images of the incident, showing the young man appearing to emerge from an alley and being shot down by the military as he approached them without throwing anything. The Israeli military said the incident was being investigated.

The ministry identified the second man as 22-year-old Ahmad Ziyoud. He was buried on Sunday in Silat al-Harithiya, near Jenin.

Since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza, the army has intensified its military operations in the West Bank.

A Catholic leader in the Holy Land visited the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip and celebrated a pre-Christmas mass for dozens of believers on Sunday. Dozens of Palestinians gathered at the Holy Family parish for mass, which included the baptism of a baby named Mario.

The Holy Family complex was hit by shrapnel from an Israeli projectile in July, killing three people, in what Israel called an accident at the time and expressed regret.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrived in Gaza on Friday for his fourth visit since the war began and said the Christian community wanted to be a “stable and solid point of reference in this sea of ​​destruction” as reconstruction slowly begins. Over the weekend, Pizzaballa visited hospitals and humanitarian projects, including meetings with families living in a refugee camp on the Gaza Strip coast, the Latin Patriarchate said.