550 settlements in the West Bank: The godfather of settlement construction

afp | Shortly before the election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sealed off the entire area after a deadly attack at a checkpoint in the West Bank. Israel has occupied it militarily since 1967. Since then, all Israeli governments – right and left – have pushed forward settlement construction there. But never before have so many new Jewish colonies emerged in the Palestinian territory as in the past three years. Almost half of Israel's West Bank settlements have been built since 2023. This was the result of an analysis by the AFP news agency of data from the non-governmental organizations Peace Now and International Crisis Group as well as the UN emergency relief office Ocha.

Peace Now counts more than 550 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This also includes so-called outposts that settlers set up without official permission. According to international law, all of these settlements are illegal because they violate international law.

In addition to the more than 3 million Palestinians, over 500,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem. In contrast to the Palestinian population there, they are allowed to vote in elections in Israel. According to the International Crisis Group, the Israeli population in Israeli settlements is also growing significantly faster than the Palestinian population.

Since the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant Islamist Hamas on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, the number of new outposts has skyrocketed. Settlers occupy land by setting up a few caravans or makeshift structures in which a few families live and often raise livestock.

For the Israelis, these farms have the advantage of being able to occupy large areas with just a few people. In this way, the radical settlers often dominate vast areas, mostly in the eastern part of the West Bank along the Jordan River or in the hills near Ramallah. The Palestinian population was previously expelled from there.

The settlers apparently feel encouraged to set up new outposts even without permission, as the Israeli authorities are increasingly approving them retrospectively. Peace Now registered about 90 new farms and other outposts in the West Bank since the beginning of the year - almost three times as many as in 2023.

The first outposts began to emerge in 1996 - the year in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power for the first time. The settler farms became established starting in 2012 during Netanyahu's second term and became the engine of Israeli expansion in the area, while the construction of traditional settlements slowed.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli authorities have been issuing significantly more building permits for the West Bank. According to the International Crisis Group, in 2025 they approved 23,000 new buildings - more than three times as many as in 2012. Symbolic of the new settlement policy this year was the reconstruction of four settlements in the north of the West Bank, which were evacuated in 2005 as part of a disengagement plan.

A tender was also published for the construction of more than 1,200 residential units - the first phase of the so-called E1 project, which borders the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem. The UN and many states condemn the plan because it further complicates the creation of a future Palestinian state.

Only on Monday, a day before the parliamentary elections in Israel, a UN commission of inquiry accused Israel of committing “crimes against humanity” in the West Bank. The situation in the West Bank has deteriorated dramatically since October 7, 2023, according to the report from the commission, which does not speak on behalf of the United Nations as a whole.

Israeli authorities and the Israeli army have committed crimes such as “extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence” in the West Bank, the commission said. Accordingly, the Israeli authorities want to collectively punish the civilian population in the West Bank for the Hamas attack. The violence of the settlers is part of this strategy. Israel continues to commit “acts of genocide” in the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian information, five people were killed there in Israeli attacks.

The Israeli mission in Geneva said the report was part of the investigative commission's "disinformation campaign" to "demonize the State of Israel and portray its very existence as criminal."

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk warned on Monday of possible “ethnic cleansing” in view of the Israeli military operation in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Threats to evacuate and destroy entire city districts are cause for serious concern, Türk said on Monday. “Collective punishments” are a serious violation of international law.

According to the Hebron city administration, 3,189 people have had to leave their homes since the military operation began on Friday. More than 200 small children were affected, among others. Israeli soldiers entered the Ein Deir Baha neighborhood and ordered residents to leave their homes. The army said it had arrested 40 people in the West Bank and searched more than 400 locations.