Rania R.a. Abushamala
18 July 2026•Update: 18 July 2026
The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission warned Friday that Israel is advancing new illegal settlement plans in the occupied West Bank involving the construction of 1,024 settlement units on more than 1,069 dunams (1,264.2 acres) of Palestinian land.
The commission said Israeli authorities are accelerating settlement expansion through projects aimed at "entrenching de facto annexation and expanding settlements" across the occupied territory.
It said Israel's Higher Planning Council, operating under the Civil Administration, has discussed nine settlement plans since the beginning of July that have entered the approval and deposit stages.
The plans include 1,024 new settlement units, with 455 units approved and 569 deposited for additional planning procedures.
The commission said the projects are part of "a systematic policy" to strengthen settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, through horizontal expansion and increased housing density to accommodate more occupiers.
Israel is increasingly focusing on expanding existing settlements rather than establishing new ones by amending construction plans, land-use regulations and zoning to increase settlement density, it said.
Among the projects, Israeli authorities approved a plan to expand the Mevo Dotan settlement, built on land belonging to the town of Arraba in southern Jenin, by adding 455 settlement units on nearly 539 dunams.
The commission added that two additional plans have been submitted to expand the Beit Hagai and Asael settlements in the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron, adding 569 settlement units on more than 519 dunams.
It said settlement planning has become "an integrated system" to reshape Palestinian geography by expanding settlements and linking them to Israeli infrastructure while restricting Palestinian urban development, describing the policy as a means of consolidating Israel's "de facto annexation" of occupied Palestinian land.
The UN has repeatedly affirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, warning that they undermine prospects for a two-state solution.
Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, based on international resolutions that do not recognize Israel’s 1967 occupation or its 1980 annexation of the city.
