Israel yesterday said that it would establish 22 settlements in the West Bank, including the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Six-day War.
Palestinians want all three territories.
Photo: AP
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz — using the Biblical term for the West Bank — said that the settlement decision “strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria, anchors our historical right in the land of Israel and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.”
It was also “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel,” Katz said.
Israel has already built more than 100 settlements across the territory that are home to about 500,000 people.
The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with apartment blocks, shopping malls, factories and public parks.
The West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.
The settlers have Israeli citizenship.
Israel has accelerated settlement construction in the past few years — long before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza — confining Palestinians to smaller areas of the West Bank and making the prospect of establishing a viable, independent state even more remote.
Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of Hamas’ armed wing, has been killed, apparently confirming his death in a recent strike in the Gaza Strip.
There was no confirmation from Hamas.
Sinwar is the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who helped mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the Israel-Hamas war, and who was killed by Israeli forces in October last year.
Mohammed Sinwar was one of the last widely known leaders still alive in Gaza.
The militant group has maintained its rule over the parts of Gaza not seized by Israel, and it still holds dozens of hostages and carries out sporadic attacks on Israeli forces.
As the head of Hamas’ armed wing, Mohammed Sinwar would have had the final word on any agreement to release the hostages. His death could further complicate US and Arab efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned, and Hamas has been either defeated or disarmed and sent into exile.
Netanyahu mentioned the killing of Mohammed Sinwar in a speech before parliament in which he listed the names of other top Hamas leaders killed during the war.
“We have killed tens of thousands of terrorists. We killed [Mohammed] Deif, [Ismail] Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” he said.
He did not elaborate.
Israeli media had reported that the younger Sinwar was the target of a strike on May 13 on what the military said was a Hamas command center beneath the European Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Sinwars’ hometown.
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