Overview
- Israel’s security cabinet approved 19 additional settlements in the occupied West Bank, a proposal advanced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich with Defense Minister Israel Katz.
- Smotrich said the government has authorized 69 settlements in three years, while Peace Now reported some of the new sites are in densely populated Palestinian areas or places with no prior Israeli presence.
- The package includes legalizing several previously unrecognized outposts and reviving former sites such as Ganim and Kadim in the northern West Bank.
- A UN report counted 47,390 settlement housing units developed, permitted, or tendered in 2025, the highest annual figure since tracking began in 2017.
- Katz said Israel would establish Nahal outposts in northern Gaza, drawing domestic and international criticism, before his office clarified that the government does not plan to build settlements in Gaza.