Occupied West Bank (QNN)- Israel approved 764 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. The move pushes the total number of settlement units advanced by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC over war crimes in Gaza, to 51,370 since late 2022.
Israel’s Channel 7 said the Higher Planning Council, which operates under the Israeli Civil Administration, granted the latest approvals. The new plans include 478 units in Hashmonaim, 230 units in Beitar Illit, and 56 units in Givat Ze’ev in central West Bank.
Settlement construction has surged since Netanyahu’s government took office at the end of 2022.
According to Israeli Channel 7, Israeli authorities approved deposit and final authorization for 51,370 settlement units across the West Bank during the current government’s tenure.
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) reported that Israel unveiled plans in mid-November for more than 26,000 additional settlement units on more than 30,000 dunams of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. ARIJ said Israeli bodies put forward 194 settlement plans between January and the end of October 2025, most of them in occupied Jerusalem.
Data from the Israeli group Peace Now shows that over 700,000 settlers now live in the West Bank, including around 250,000 in the eastern part of Jerusalem.
The United Nations affirms that settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory is illegal. The UN has called for its halt for decades, but Israeli governments continue to accelerate construction.
Israel’s current government is speeding up settlement expansion as part of its public push to annex large areas of the West Bank.
The Israeli Knesset moved further in that direction on October 22, when it gave preliminary approval to a bill that seeks to annex the occupied West Bank. The step sparked widespread regional and international condemnation.
