Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the Israeli Cabinet had approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

As part of his official role in the Ministry of Defense, Smotrich overseas the Administration for Settlement Affairs, a government entity established in 2023 to manage civilian matters in the West Bank's settlements, including approving construction requests.

What do we know about the new Israeli settlements?

The list of approvals includes two West Bank villages evacuated by Israel as part of the 2005 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

Left-wing Israeli watchdog Peace Now said the newly approved settlements also include areas where Israel had not previously had a presence, while others are to be built in densely populated Palestinian areas, as well as sites where Palestinian communities have been expelled.

"We will continue to develop, build, and settle the land of our ancestral heritage, with faith in the justice of our path," Smotrich posted on his X account.

According to Smotrich, the Israeli government is "stopping the establishment" of a Palestinian state, which he labels a "terror state," through creating facts on the ground.

Growing settlements under far-right government

The current Israeli government is considered the country's most far-right government to date. Bezalel Smotrich is seen as one of its most prominent members.

Smotrich is one of the most staunch supporters of the country's settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal according to international law.

The Israeli finance minister has also been vocal in his support for annexing the West Bank, a widely-rejected notion, including by Israel's strongest allies.

The Israeli establishment of settlements is often condemned internationally, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying earlier this month that such moves continue "to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State."

The UN has said that the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank has reached its highest level since at least 2017.

Peace Now says the number of settlements — often called "formalization" by the Israeli government due to the legalization of outposts that had originally been established illegally —  increased by nearly 50% under the current government, from 141 in 2022 to 210 in 2025.

Addressing the settlements, UN chief Guterres said in the recent UN report: "These developments are further entrenching the unlawful Israeli occupation and violating international law and undermining the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination."

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, with settler violence in the Palestinian territory flaring since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023 following the Hamas attack on Israel.

Over 1,000 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers in the past two years, including militants as well as civilians, as per a tally by the French AFP news agency. Israeli data suggests at least 44 Israelis were killed in the West Bank during the same period.

Edited by: Rana Taha