Defense Minister Israel Katz says the move strengthens control over Judea and Samaria and delivers a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.
The Israeli government announced on Thursday the establishment of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, a sweeping move that includes legalizing previously unauthorized outposts and further entrenching Israel’s hold over territory that Palestinians claim for a future state.
The announcement was made by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.
“We have made a historic decision for the development of the settlements: 22 new localities in Judea and Samaria,” Mr. Smotrich said, using the biblical name favored by Israeli officials for the occupied West Bank, which Israel has controlled since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Maps released by Likud, Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative party, showed that the new settlements would be scattered across the territory, from north to south and through the central region, further dividing Palestinian areas already fragmented by decades of settlement expansion.
The defense minister, Israel Katz, emphasized that the decision would “strengthen our control over Judea and Samaria” and described it as “a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.” Mr. Katz added that the move was part of a broader strategy to block the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he said would endanger Israel.
The announcement came a day after Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, expressed optimism about the possibility of brokering a cease-fire in Gaza, where war between Israel and Hamas has raged for 600 days.
Israel’s settlement expansion has accelerated in recent years. While the Trump administration explicitly supported settlement legalization, the Biden administration has voiced opposition but applied little concrete pressure on Israel to halt its plans.
Currently, more than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in over 100 settlements across the West Bank, ranging from small hilltop outposts to fully developed urban complexes with shopping centers, schools, and parks.
In the midst of ongoing violence in Gaza, members of the Israeli government have also floated proposals to reestablish settlements in the Gaza Strip, from which Israel withdrew in 2005, and have suggested the voluntary emigration of parts of the Palestinian population from the enclave.
According to Yaakov Garb, a professor at Ben-Gurion University, Israel currently controls over 70 percent of Gaza’s territory, including buffer zones and evacuated cities like Rafah.
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