The expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has reached its highest level since at least 2017, AFP learned from a report by the UN Secretary-General on Friday. The UN has been collecting such data since 2017.
The report said that in 2025, plans for about 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved or tendered. This number is much higher than in 2024. Last year, the number of such housing units was about 26,170.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the expansion. “It is constantly fueling tensions, preventing Palestinians from accessing their land and threatening the prospects for a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state,” he said.
An average of 12,815 Israeli housing units were added to the West Bank each year between 2017 and 2022, Guterres said. This represents a significant increase in the number of settlements compared to previous years.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed the territory. Excluding Jerusalem, the West Bank is currently home to about 500,000 Israeli settlers. There are also about 3 million Palestinians living there.
Guterres said such activities are entrenching the illegal Israeli occupation, violating international law and undermining the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian independence movement Hamas attacked Israel. In response, Israel launched a crackdown on Gaza that day. Since then, the country has also spread violence to the West Bank.
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According to an AFP count based on information from the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 1,022 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the conflict. This includes both armed fighters and civilians.
At the same time, at least 44 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the West Bank. This information has been reported according to Israeli official figures.
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