In a move that has deepened long-simmering tensions in the Middle East, Israel’s cabinet has quietly given final approval to 34 new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank — a single decision that breaks all previous records for settlement expansion in one sitting, Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS has reported. The unprecedented step comes amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Iran, and marks a dramatic acceleration of territorial expansion that critics warn eliminates any remaining path to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. The total number of settlements approved in this one vote already surpasses 63 percent of the all-time annual record set just last year in 2025, when 54 new settlements were greenlit.
Under international law, all Israeli settlements constructed in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War, are formally classified as illegal. This widespread international condemnation has done little to slow expansion under the current Israeli administration, which took office in 2022. To date, the government has approved a total of 102 new settlements since 2022, alongside the creation of nearly 200 unregulated settler outposts that have since been retroactively legalized by state authorities.
According to anonymous sources who spoke to i24NEWS, Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, attended the cabinet meeting where the vote took place. While Zamir did not issue an explicit formal objection to the settlement plan, he raised clear concerns about strained military personnel allocations to secure the new sites. He recommended that the government phase the rollout, authorizing a smaller number of settlements at a time rather than launching all 34 at once.
The Israeli cabinet intentionally classified the decision initially, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to avoid sharp international backlash at a moment when relations between Israel and its key ally the United States are already strained over the war in Iran. Details of the secret approval were ultimately leaked to the public this Thursday after receiving formal clearance from Israeli military censors. While the full list of locations for the new settlements has not yet been made public, early reports indicate that several sites are located in areas of the West Bank that have never before hosted Israeli settlements, including remote zones that are rarely accessed even by regular Israeli military forces.
This aggressive push into unoccupied territory comes as settlement expansion has ramped up sharply since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in 2023. Peace Now, the leading Israeli anti-settlement peace advocacy organization, confirmed that 2025 saw a record-breaking 54 settlement approvals, shattering the previous annual record of nine set just two years prior in 2023. Twenty-six of those 2025 approvals were retroactively legalizing unauthorised settler outposts that had already been built illegally on Palestinian land. The group’s data also shows that unauthorised outpost construction surged in 2025, with 86 new outposts erected — a 39 percent increase from 2024, working out to an average of one to two new unauthorised outposts per week.
A recent United Nations report released March 17 documents the severe human cost of this accelerating expansion and rising settler aggression. Between November 2024 and October 2025 alone, the UN recorded that more than 36,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the West Bank amid a sharp spike in targeted attacks by Israeli settlers. Over the same 12-month period, 1,732 documented incidents of settler violence that resulted in Palestinian casualties or property damage were recorded — a 25 percent increase from the previous year.
In recent weeks, this violence has reached new levels of brutality. Dozens of Israeli settlers have carried out a wave of arson attacks against Palestinian property, including the burning of a Palestinian medical clinic, opened fire on civilian Palestinian residents, and vandalized a Palestinian school with hateful graffiti reading “Death to Arabs”. Data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, compiled by Agence France-Presse, shows that at least 1,050 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli military forces or settlers since October 2023, including six additional fatalities recorded since the beginning of March 2026.
Lior Amihai, executive director of Peace Now, told independent outlet Middle East Eye that the 34-settlement approval is no accident, but a deliberate step toward permanent annexation of the entire West Bank. “They’re not hiding it. They’re actually very clear about it, and this is the de facto annexation that they’re doing, taking over the territories and ethnic cleansing the Palestinians from Area C,” Amihai explained, referencing the 60 percent of the West Bank that falls under full Israeli security and civilian control. Even with the initial attempt at secrecy, likely driven by a desire to avoid international pressure amid US tensions over the Iran war, Amihai said the current Israeli government makes no attempt to hide its end goal. “This government at large does not hide its intentions to destroy the possibilities of a Palestinian state and peace between Israelis and the Palestinians.”
This latest approval marks the largest single batch of settlements ever approved by an Israeli cabinet, cementing the current government’s legacy as the most aggressively pro-expansion administration in Israeli history. The move is expected to draw sharp condemnation from the international community, though it remains to be seen if it will result in any meaningful diplomatic or economic consequences for Israel.