Rapid increase since the beginning of the war
NGO: Number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank is increasing
January 6, 2024, 7:09 a.m
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been significantly more wild Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli NGO Peace Now speaks of a “record” number of newly built outposts and warns that some settlers are increasingly trying to “marginalize” the Palestinians.
Since the start of the war between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there has been an “unprecedented increase” in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to activists. According to a report by the Israeli non-governmental organization Peace Now, nine so-called outposts have been set up in the Palestinian territory since October 7th. In addition to this “record,” Peace Now also counted a “record number” of “18 new paved or settler-authorized roads.”
In the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, around three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis live in settlements that the UN classifies as violating international law but are recognized by Israel. The wild settlements contradict international law and are also illegal from an Israeli perspective.
The report, published by Peace Now, also said some settlers were increasingly trying to “marginalize” Palestinians. “The three months of war in Gaza are being exploited by settlers to create facts on the ground and thus take control of large areas in Area C,” Peace Now said. These are areas in the West Bank that are under Israeli civilian and military control and where the settlements are concentrated.
Proximity to the government “favors” settler projects
Several leaders of the Israeli settler movement are members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. This helped create a “tolerant military and political environment” that favored the development of some settler projects, the NGO said.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ major attack on Israel on October 7th. Hundreds of fighters from the Palestinian group, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA, had invaded Israeli towns and committed atrocities against civilians there. According to Israeli figures, around 1,140 people were killed and around 250 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. Israel has since been attacking targets in the Gaza Strip in a massive military campaign, killing at least 22,600 people, according to figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health that cannot be independently verified.
Violent acts by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank have reached a new high in 2023, the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din announced earlier this week. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) counted 1,225 attacks by settlers on Palestinians last year.