According to the i24News channel, ten of the 34 new colonies are existing outposts which will be legalized and 24 others are planned.
According to the Ynet news site, the chief of staff of the Israeli army Eyal Zamir declared, during the security cabinet meeting on the issue, that the army was going to “collapse”, the creation of new settlements requiring an additional effort for its troops then that Israel is at war.
The new settlements will be established from the north to the south of the West Bank, according to Ynet and i24News.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Apart from East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank among around three million Palestinians, in settlements that the United Nations considers illegal under international law.
The colonization of the West Bank has continued under all Israeli governments since 1967, but has significantly accelerated since the accession of the far right to power at the end of 2022, thanks to an alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and even more so after the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas of October 7, 2023 which triggered the Gaza war.
