May 29 (Reuters) – Israel’s government has approved 22 new Jewish settlements for the occupied Western Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Thursday that could deepen his division with several allies that threatened sanctions rather than further expansion.
The far-right Sumotrich, a defender of Israel’s sovereignty over Israel’s West Bank, wrote to X that the new settlement was written in the northern region of the West Bank without identifying it.
Israeli media said the Ministry of Defense said that among the new Jewish settlements, existing “pre-post bases” will be legalized and new settlements will also be built.
Approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers live among the 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli territory captured from Jordan in the war of 1967. Israel later annexed East Jerusalem. This is a move that is not recognized by most countries, but has not formally expanded sovereignty in the West Bank.
Palestinians view the expansion of the settlement as an obstacle to their desire to establish an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, including occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
While the list of European countries demanding Israel end the war in Gaza is growing, Britain, France and Canada warned this month that Israel could impose target sanctions if Israel continues to expand its West Bank settlement.
Most international communities believe that Jewish settlements are illegal. The Israeli government considers settlements legal under its own laws, but so-called “pre-post bases” are illegal, but often tolerated and sometimes legalized.
Reconciliation efforts in the West Bank have accelerated sharply, in addition to increasing Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants since the current 20th month of the war in Gaza, along with an increase in settler attacks targeting Palestinian residents.
Nabil Abu Rudain, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the Israeli decision a “dangerous escalation” and accused the government of continuing to drag the region into a “cycle of violence and instability.”
“This extremist Israeli government is working hard to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” he told Reuters, urging President Donald Trump’s administration to intervene.
Hamas’ official Sami Abu Zuri condemned the announcement and called on the US and the European Union to take action.
“The announcement of the construction of 22 new settlements in the West Bank is part of a Netanyahu-led war against the Palestinians,” Abu Zuri told Reuters.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Ali Sawafta, Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Editing by Sharon Singleton)
