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israeli’s wardrobe has approved the proposal for 19 new settlements in the occupied west coastthe far-right finance minister said on Sunday.
It is the latest move by the far-right government to advance construction in the occupied territory, threatening the prospects for further palestinian State.
According to Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who pushes the settlement expansion agenda in the West Bank, the settlements include two that were previously evacuated during the 2005 disengagement plan.
This brings the total number of new settlements over the past few years to 69, Smotrich wrote on X.
This approval increases the number of settlements in the West Bank by approximately 50% during the tenure of the current government. In 2022, there were 141 settlements in the West Bank.
After the current approval, there are now 210 settlements peace nowAn anti-settlement monitoring group. The settlements are widely considered illegal under international law.
Settlements are the latest blow to the Palestinian state
This approval has come when America is putting pressure on Israel Hamas to move forward with a new phase of Gaza The ceasefire, which came into effect on 10 October. The US-brokered plan calls for a possible “pathway” to a Palestinian state – which the settlements are intended to prevent.
The cabinet decision included the retroactive legalization of neighborhoods of some already established settlement outposts or existing settlements and the creation of settlements on the land. Palestinians Evacuated, Peace Now said.
It said the two settlements legalized in the latest approval are Kadim and Ganim, two of the four West Bank settlements destroyed as part of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. After Israel’s far-right government in March 2023 revoked the 2005 act that had evacuated the four outposts and barred Israelis from re-entering these areas, several efforts have been made to resettle them.
Israel occupies the former West Bank Jerusalem and Gaza – territory claimed by the Palestinians for a future state in the 1967 war. It has settled at over 500,000 jews More than 200,000 people are contesting elections in the West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem.
Israel’s government is dominated by far-right supporters of the settler movement, including Smotrich and Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the country’s police force.
The expansion of settlers has come as attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have increased in recent months.
During the October olive harvest, settlers across the region carried out an average of eight strikes per day, the highest since united nations The humanitarian office began collecting data in 2006. Attacks continued into November, with the United Nations recording at least 136 more attacks by 24 November.
Settlers burned cars, desecrated mosques, vandalized industrial plants and destroyed crop lands. Israel The authorities have done nothing except occasionally condemn the violence.
Health ministry says two Palestinians killed in clashes in West Bank
Palestinian Ministry of Health Ramallah Two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Saturday night in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, Israel said.
The Israeli military said one terrorist was shot dead after attacking Israeli troops in Qabatiya on Saturday night, and another terrorist was killed after throwing explosives at Israeli troops operating in the town of Silat al-Harithiya.
The Palestinian Health Ministry has identified the Palestinian killed in Qabatiya as 16-year-old Rayyan Abu Muallah. Palestinian media aired brief security footage of the incident, which shows the young man emerging from an alley and being shot by soldiers as he approaches them without throwing anything. The Israeli military said the incident was under review.
The Health Ministry identified the second person as Ahmed Ziaoud, 22. He was buried near Silat al-Harithiya on Sunday. jenine,
Israel’s military has escalated military operations in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Cardinal celebrates Christmas in Gaza City
top Catholic leader in holy land Visited Gaza Strip only Catholic Church And celebrated pre-Christmas mass for dozens of believers on Sunday. Dozens of Palestinians gathered at the Holy Family Parish for mass, including the baptism of a child mario,
The Holy Family compound was hit by fragments from an Israeli shell in July, killing three people, which Israel then called an accident and expressed regret.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrived on Friday for his fourth visit to Gaza since the war began and said the Christian community aimed to become “a stable, solid point of reference in this sea of destruction” as reconstruction slowly begins. Over the weekend, Pizzaballa visited hospitals and humanitarian projects, including meeting with families living in a displaced persons camp along the Gaza coastline, the Latin Patriarchate said.