International Law and Human Rights

Israel’s Cabinet has approved the establishment or legalization of 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich says brings the number of new settlements in recent years to 69 and boosts the total to 210, nearly 50 percent more than in 2022. The decision, which includes restoring two settlements dismantled in the 2005 disengagement and retroactively legalizing outposts, comes as the U.S.-brokered Gaza cease-fire’s second phase envisions a possible pathway to a Palestinian state, and amid ongoing settler violence and fresh clashes in which two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed by Israeli forces Saturday night.