According to the Israeli NGO Peace Now, nine illegal settlements have emerged in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, the number of illegal settlements and new routes for settlers in the occupied West Bank has increased “unprecedentedly,” argues the Israeli NGO Peace Now in a new study. According to this anti-colonization organization, nine wild colonies, or “outposts” in English, have emerged in the West Bank since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7 with a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement. This was followed by a major Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip .
The West Bank, occupied by the Israeli army since 1967, has seen a sharp increase in violence since the start of the Gaza war, but also an increase in the activities of certain settlers aimed at “marginalizing” Palestinians there, it said Peace now. About three million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, an area also home to 490,000 Israelis, based in colonies considered illegal under international law but recognized by Israel. However, illegal settlements are settlements that are both contrary to international law and illegal from the perspective of the Israeli state.
18 new routes
In addition to this “record number” of new illegal settlements in three months, Peace Now also noted a “record” of “18 new roads paved or approved by settlers.” “The three months of war in Gaza are being exploited by settlers to impose order on the ground and thus take control of larger parts of Area C,” a part of the West Bank under Israeli civilian military control and in which concentrated the colonies, emphasizes the NGO. Several leaders of the pro-colony movement are currently ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which also helps create “a political environment” favorable to the development of projects by certain settlers, the Peace Now report continued.
Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank hit a record in 2023, Israeli NGO Yesh Din said this week, with the UN also recording 1,225 settler attacks on Palestinians during the year. At the beginning of December, the USA imposed sanctions on dozens of settlers who are now banned from entering American territory. And France has “decided to take measures” against certain “extremist” settlers, said the head of its diplomacy, Catherine Colonna.