While the Israeli government has approved the establishment of 13 new settlements, a drastic increase in demolitions and settler attacks continues to ravage Palestinian communities.
Written by: Al Jazeera staff
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared that Israel has launched a „revolution” in settlement expansion, which he says will mean the expansion of illegal outposts beyond the occupied West Bank, into the Negev Desert and the Galilee.
The far-right minister's post on the X social media site came after the Israeli government recently approved the establishment of 13 new settlements in the central occupied West Bank.
These settlements – considered illegal under international law – will be located at strategically critical points in the West Bank, which Israeli officials say will help consolidate their control over the occupied Palestinian territories.
The project focuses on strategic corridors along Highway 60 – the central north-south artery connecting major Palestinian cities such as Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem – as well as areas extending towards the Jordan Valley.
Palestinian officials have warned that the expansion will further isolate occupied East Jerusalem – long seen as the capital of a future Palestinian state – from the rest of the West Bank, undermining any prospects for a two-state solution.
There has been an aggressive push to expand settlements since 2022, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed the most far-right government in Israeli history, including ministers who are leading figures in the settler movement. This has resulted in an unprecedented surge in state funding for settlement expansion, according to the Palestinian Israel Research Forum (MADAR).
While an average of eight outposts were established each year between 2012 and 2022, this number increased to 32 in 2023. The trend accelerated in 2024, with 62 new outposts established, with 75 million shekels ($20 million) in government funding. In 2025, the expansion intensified further, with a record 86 new outposts established across the West Bank.
An estimated 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements in the occupied West Bank, and another 250,000 in occupied East Jerusalem; these are considered illegal under international law.
The settlement expansion coincides with a wave of brutal violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians. A United Nations investigation recently reported a 130 percent increase in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages and agricultural lands in the West Bank since 2023.
On Friday, settlers destroyed the main power line in the village of al-Maniya, cutting off power to the community and causing widespread panic.
On the same day, settlers damaged greenhouses near Tulkarem, tearing down protective nets and destroying local family businesses. Northeast of Jerusalem, settlers took control of the Ein Rawabi spring, on which dozens of Bedouin families depend for watering 1,300 sheep.
Palestinians are also being forced from their homes, as happened in the village of Jalud during the same period. Overall, this indicates a systematic and coordinated settler campaign to destroy infrastructure and drive Palestinians from their homes.
In May alone, the Committee Against Colonization and Walls (CWRC) documented 1,659 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank, of which 551 incidents were directly attributed to settlers. The violence was concentrated in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron, resulting in the destruction, uprooting or burning of 7,222 trees, including more than 3,300 olive trees, which are a vital source of income for many Palestinian families.
The Israeli state has also stepped up its demolition of Palestinian homes, carrying out 70 demolition operations in May, destroying 155 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Governorate suffered the most, with 50 structures demolished in a single month.
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Since October 8, coinciding with the genocidal war in Gaza, combined violence by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank has resulted in the deaths of 1,175 Palestinians and the injury of 12,919. During the same period, some 24,000 Palestinians have been arrested and 33,000 forced from their homes.
