Amid rising tension, Israel shares new West Bank settlement plan ahead of Gaza ceasefire talks

In yet another provocative step amid the ongoing Middle East crisis, Israel has published plans for a proposed new settlement in the Occupied West Bank.

Since the beginning of the war with Hamas in October 2023, Israel has doubled down with the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law.

The plans, as announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, come just one day ahead of the high-stakes meeting for a deal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages in Hamas’ captivity. The talks have already been compromised by a slew of new demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made in recent weeks .

Even as the talks already stands compromised and Israel increasingly finds itself isolated internationally, Smotrich said on Wednesday that nothing “will stop the development of the settlement”.

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“No anti-Israel or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of the settlement. We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. This is the mission of my life,” said Smotrich, according to Reuters.

Israel has expanded settlements amid war

Following the outbreak of the war with Hamas last year, Israel not only accelerated the construction of settlements but also approved new projects .

In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Israel-Arab War of 1967, settlements refer to Jewish communities that have been settled there over the years. Around 450,000 Israeli Jews live in 160 illegal settlements in the West Bank, according to CNN.

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In June, Israel announced it was going to legalise five outposts in the West Bank, establish three new settlements, and seize large tracts of land where Palestinians seek to create an independent state in future, according to Reuters.

Separately, The Guardian had reported in April that Israel had accelerated the construction of around 20 settler projects in the West Bank since October 2023. The projects were expected to build thousands of housing units.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), the internationally-recognised de-facto Palestinian government that partially runs the West Bank, has maintained that the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank amounts to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The settlements are an impediment to any future Palestinian state within the two-state framework which envisions a Jewish State of Israel and an Arab State of Palestine co-existing in the region. As the Palestinian territories get fragmented with hundreds of settlements scattered all over with nearly half a million settlers, the feasibility of a Palestinian state on the same land comes under question.