TEL AVIV (Agencies): Israel’s government has recognised three new settlement outposts built on Palestinian land and authorised the construction of 5,295 new housing units in several illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, an Israeli advocacy group has reported.
Peace Now, which monitors settlement expansion, warned yesterday that the new approvals are likely to escalate tensions, especially as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank endure intensified raids by Israeli forces and settlers amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
“Our government continues to change the rules of the game in the occupied West Bank, leading to irreversible harm,” Peace Now said in a statement
The rights group also condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was appointed to the body that approves settlements.
“This annexationist government severely undermines the security and future of both Israelis and Palestinians, and the cost of this recklessness will be paid for generations to come,” it said.
The latest approved settlements include Givat Hanan, Kedem Arava and Machane Gadi in the Jordan Valley.