DM Monitoring
Israel has approved the establishment of dozens of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli watchdog group said on Thursday, amid a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians across the occupied territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has not formally announced the establishment of the 34 new settlements, many of them outposts in far-flung areas of the mountainous territory, the Peace Now watchdog group said in a statement.
The Palestinian Presidency’s office condemned the plan as a “flagrant violation of international law”.
Netanyahu’s government has overseen a historic settlement construction push that his far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says is aimed at burying the idea of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank.
