Layan Bsharat
30 April 2026•Update: 30 April 2026
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has decried Israel’s approval of new illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank, warning the Israeli policy “deliberately undermines any chance for peace.”
In a statement, the ministry said the Israeli move aims “to displace the Palestinian people and deepen the existing colonial apartheid system.”
On Wednesday, Israel’s Higher Planning Council approved the construction of 126 settlement units in the settlement of Sanur, built on land in the Jenin governorate in the northern West Bank.
The approval comes about 20 years after the settlement was evacuated under Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan in 2005 by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Israel “has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory,” the ministry said, stressing that all settlement activities, including reviving unauthorized outposts, land confiscation and expansion, are “illegal, null and void.”
The decision “creates no legal effect under international law and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions,” the ministry said.
“The continued expansion of illegal settlements deliberately undermines any chance for peace and aims to displace the Palestinian people and deepen the existing colonial apartheid system.”
It described the move as a “blatant challenge to the will of the international community and international humanitarian law.”
The ministry called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities and take urgent, binding measures to halt Israeli settlement activity, including imposing sanctions and linking relations with Israel to compliance with international law.
It also urged action to compel Israel to stop ongoing violations and to provide international protection for the Palestinian people.
The decision comes amid accelerated settlement activity since the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in late 2022, with notable expansion across the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
The international community and the UN consider the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, an occupied Palestinian territory and view Israeli settlements there illegal under international law.
About 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in the occupied West Bank, including around 250,000 in East Jerusalem, in settlements considered illegal under international law, according to Palestinian estimates.
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli forces and occupiers have escalated attacks in the West Bank, killing more than 1,100 Palestinians, injuring about 12,000 and carrying out widespread arrests, according to Palestinian data.
*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul
