Warnings of a new settlement plan targeting the West Bank with over a thousand housing units

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission issued strong warnings of a new settlement wave sweeping the occupied West Bank, confirming that the occupation seeks to establish 1024 additional housing units. The commission clarified that these plans aim to seize more than a thousand dunams of private and communal Palestinian lands, in a step intended to radically change the geographical and demographic reality.

Official sources reported that Israeli authorities are accelerating the pace of approving settlement projects to impose a policy of 'de facto annexation' on the ground. The commission stated in its report that the so-called 'Higher Planning Council' has discussed nine major settlement plans since the beginning of July, all of which have undergone deposit procedures and final approval.

The new units are distributed between 455 housing units that received final approval, and 569 other units that were deposited for the completion of necessary legal and technical procedures for their adoption. These figures confirm the Israeli government's insistence on expanding existing settlement blocs and increasing their urban density to accommodate larger numbers of settlers deep within the occupied territories.

According to the report issued by the commission, the occupation is currently focusing on horizontal expansion within existing settlements instead of building new outposts, in order to reduce international pressure. Israeli planning authorities use amendments to building maps and land uses as technical tools to legitimize the seizure of additional areas and consolidate the settlement presence.

In the northern West Bank, the occupation authorities approved the expansion of the 'Mevo Dotan' settlement, located on the lands of the town of Arraba, south of Jenin. This plan includes the addition of 455 new settlement units on an area estimated at about 539 dunams, threatening to confiscate more agricultural lands and tighten the noose on surrounding Palestinian communities.

As for the Hebron Governorate in the south, two plans were deposited to expand the 'Beit Hagai' and 'Asa'el' settlements, where 567 new settlement units are to be added. This step aims to connect the settlement blocs in the south with a network of roads and advanced infrastructure, isolating Palestinian villages and towns from each other and turning them into isolated enclaves.

In a significant political and administrative development, the commander of the Central Region in the occupation army signed an order to transform the 'Givat Ze'ev' settlement, located northwest of Jerusalem, into an official city. This transformation grants the settlement broad administrative powers and huge government budgets, facilitating rapid construction operations and attracting thousands of new settlers to the area.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich commented on this decision, considering it a strategic step to strengthen the settlement project in the heart of the West Bank. Smotrich affirmed in statements reported by Hebrew media that the ultimate goal of these moves is to block any attempt to establish an independent Palestinian state in the future.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission believes that this integrated planning system aims to reshape Palestinian geography to serve the security and political interests of the occupation. The commission warned that restricting Palestinian urban expansion in contrast to the settlement explosion leads to crowding Palestinians into narrow spaces and besieging their natural growth.

On the international level, the United Nations and the international community continue to affirm that all settlement activities in the territories occupied in 1967 are illegal and violate international law. These powers consider that the continued construction in settlements directly undermines the two-state solution and eliminates the chances of achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region.

Data from the 'Peace Now' movement indicates that the number of settlers in the West Bank has reached about half a million people, in addition to a quarter of a million in East Jerusalem. These statistics confirm the magnitude of the challenge faced by Palestinians in light of a systematic policy aimed at seizing land and preventing geographical communication between the cities of the West Bank.

These projects do not represent ordinary urban expansions, but rather come within a systematic policy to strengthen settlement blocs and entrench de facto annexation.