(Tel Aviv) The Israeli government has approved plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in occupied West Bank settlements, a monitoring group said Thursday, the latest move in a campaign to consolidate Israeli control over the territory and prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
News of the decision came as diplomatic efforts to end the nine-month war in Gaza appeared to be resuming. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had decided to send negotiators to resume talks. The Hamas militant group had delivered its latest response to a U.S.-backed deal proposal to mediators a day earlier.
Israel’s settlement drive threatens to fuel tensions in the West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the Gaza war began on October 7.
Settlement watchdog Peace Now said the government’s Higher Planning Council had approved or advanced plans for 5,295 housing units in dozens of settlements across the West Bank.
On Wednesday, the body also reported that Israel had approved the largest land seizure in the West Bank in more than three decades.
Mr Netanyahu’s government is dominated by settlers and their supporters. Israeli Finance Minister Bazalel Smotrich, himself a settler, has been put in charge of settlement policy and has said his rapid expansion drive is partly aimed at ensuring that a Palestinian state cannot be created.
In an escalation in recent months, settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians, causing deaths, damaging property and, in some cases, prompting Palestinians to flee their villages.
The Palestinians seek to create an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
The new housing permits could also anger the United States, an ally of Israel that opposes the settlements, even though it has not denounced the actions of Mr. Netanyahu’s government.