Israel: Right Minister announces 22 settlements in the West Bank

The right -wing extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezhalel Smotrich has announced the establishment of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. “We have made a historical decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria,” he said on Thursday in online service X, using the Israeli name for West Bank. According to international law, the settlements are considered illegal. The step could further tighten the tense relationships of Israel to parts of the international community.

According to a map published by the Likud party by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the planned 22 settlements are distributed throughout the West Bank. The party said in the online service Telegram that the project was cited by Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz and approved by the security cabinet.

Smotrich’s announcement was made after the US-NaHost specialist Steve Witkoff had expressed a positive effect with a view to the prospects for a possible ceasefire in the war between Israel and Islamist Hamas. He had a “very good feeling,” said US President Donald Trump’s confidant on Wednesday.

Israel had taken control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 six -day war. According to international law, the establishment of Israeli settlements in these Palestinian areas is illegal. Despite protest from abroad, Israel has built dozens of settlements in West Bank in the past decades, where more than 490,000 Israelis now live alongside around three million Palestinians.