Israeli recognition of new WB settlements rejected
Published: 04:03 PM,Mar 23,2025 | EDITED : 08:03 PM,Mar 23,2025
TOPSHOT - Residents leave the Al-ain camp for Palestinian refugees west of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on March 19, 2025, during an Israeli army raid. Violence in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, has escalated since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status. The decision by Israel's security cabinet was a show of 'disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions', said a statement from the Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry. The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.
Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader and settler who was behind the cabinet's decision, hailed it as an 'important step' for Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Smotrich is a leading voice calling for Israel to formally annex the West Bank -- as it did in 1967 after capturing east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most of the international community. 'The recognition of each (neighbourhood) as a separate community... is an important step that would help their development,' Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a 'revolution'. 'Instead of hiding and apologising, we raise the flag, we build and we settle,' he said. 'This is another important step towards de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,' added Smotrich.
In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an ongoing major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by 'an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands'. The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some of them are effectively part of the bigger settlements they belong to while others are practically separate.
Their recognition as separate communities under Israeli law is not yet final. Hailing the 'normalisation' of settlement expansion, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision. According to EU figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record in settlement building permits issued by Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel's military pressed ground operations across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, urging Palestinians to flee an offensive in Rafah city nearly a week into a renewed assault on the territory. The latest evacuation warning follows a deadly flare-up in Lebanon and missiles fired from Yemen, while Israeli troops are again deploying to parts of Gaza despite calls to revive a January truce. The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that the war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 50,021 people in the territory. Gaza's civil defence agency said separately, citing its own records, that the death toll has topped 50,000 people.
In a statement on X on Sunday, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the army 'launched an offensive to strike the terrorist organisations' in a district of the southern city of Rafah, already the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago. In a message that correspondents said also appeared on leaflets dropped over the area by drone, Adraee called on Palestinians there to leave the 'dangerous combat zone' in Tal Al Sultan district and move further north.
Before its renewed assault, Israel in early March blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza and cut electricity supplies, in a bid to force Hamas to accept the Israeli terms for an extension of the ceasefire and release the 58 hostages held by Palestinian militants. The electricity supplied by Israel had fed Gaza's main water desalination plant, and the decision to cut power has aggravated already dire conditions for Gaza's 2.4 million people.
An Israeli air strike on Saturday on a displacement camp in the Khan Yunis area killed senior Hamas political official Salah al Bardawil and his wife, the group said. Murad al Najjar, who lives in the area, said he 'heard a very loud explosion. Our tents were destroyed... And we saw that a man and his wife were martyred.' Bardawil is the third member of Hamas's political bureau killed in Israeli strikes since last week. — AFP
Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader and settler who was behind the cabinet's decision, hailed it as an 'important step' for Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Smotrich is a leading voice calling for Israel to formally annex the West Bank -- as it did in 1967 after capturing east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most of the international community. 'The recognition of each (neighbourhood) as a separate community... is an important step that would help their development,' Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a 'revolution'. 'Instead of hiding and apologising, we raise the flag, we build and we settle,' he said. 'This is another important step towards de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,' added Smotrich.
In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an ongoing major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by 'an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands'. The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some of them are effectively part of the bigger settlements they belong to while others are practically separate.
Their recognition as separate communities under Israeli law is not yet final. Hailing the 'normalisation' of settlement expansion, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision. According to EU figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record in settlement building permits issued by Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel's military pressed ground operations across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, urging Palestinians to flee an offensive in Rafah city nearly a week into a renewed assault on the territory. The latest evacuation warning follows a deadly flare-up in Lebanon and missiles fired from Yemen, while Israeli troops are again deploying to parts of Gaza despite calls to revive a January truce. The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that the war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 50,021 people in the territory. Gaza's civil defence agency said separately, citing its own records, that the death toll has topped 50,000 people.
In a statement on X on Sunday, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the army 'launched an offensive to strike the terrorist organisations' in a district of the southern city of Rafah, already the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago. In a message that correspondents said also appeared on leaflets dropped over the area by drone, Adraee called on Palestinians there to leave the 'dangerous combat zone' in Tal Al Sultan district and move further north.
Before its renewed assault, Israel in early March blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza and cut electricity supplies, in a bid to force Hamas to accept the Israeli terms for an extension of the ceasefire and release the 58 hostages held by Palestinian militants. The electricity supplied by Israel had fed Gaza's main water desalination plant, and the decision to cut power has aggravated already dire conditions for Gaza's 2.4 million people.
An Israeli air strike on Saturday on a displacement camp in the Khan Yunis area killed senior Hamas political official Salah al Bardawil and his wife, the group said. Murad al Najjar, who lives in the area, said he 'heard a very loud explosion. Our tents were destroyed... And we saw that a man and his wife were martyred.' Bardawil is the third member of Hamas's political bureau killed in Israeli strikes since last week. — AFP