Israel will build over 5,000 new homes for settlers in the West Bank

2024-07-04 22:42:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Israeli government has approved plans to build almost 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, a monitoring group said on July 4. This is the latest decision in the campaign to accelerate settlement expansion, aimed at cementing Israeli control over the territory and preventing the creation of a future Palestinian state.

The settlement decision threatens to further heighten tensions in the West Bank, where violence has risen since war broke out in Gaza on October 7 between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said the Israeli government's High Planning Council has approved or advanced plans for 5,295 homes in dozens of settlements in the West Bank.

The monitoring group said Israel has approved the largest land grab in the West Bank in more than three decades. COGAT, the Israeli defense body that oversees the Planning Council, did not respond for comment after Peace Now published the information.

Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government is dominated by settlers and their supporters. The Minister of Finance, Bazalel Smotrich, is a settler and has been given responsibility for drafting settlement policies. He has said that the rapid expansion of settlements is in part being done to ensure that a Palestinian state cannot be created in the future.

In recent months, violence has escalated and more than 1,000 settler attacks on Palestinians have been recorded, causing deaths, damage to property and in some cases, forcing Palestinians to leave villages.

The Palestinians want the West Bank, South Jerusalem - areas that were taken over by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war - to be part of their independent state.

The decision to build new homes for settlers could anger Israel's ally Washington, which has spoken out against the settlements but done little to pressure Israel on the issue.

Meanwhile, the question of Palestinian citizenship is part of an effort for a long-term solution for Gaza. The US has floated the idea of ??the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority governing Gaza after the war ends and has called for a revival of the peace process that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

These ideas have been strongly opposed by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu./ REL