A senior Palestinian official has condemned Israel’s approval of new settlements in the West Bank, calling it a “war of extermination on Palestinian geography.” The official urged immediate international action to halt the expansion.
Moeed Sha’ban, head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, issued the statement following recent Israeli government actions. These include the retroactive legalization of 69 settlement outposts and the approval of 19 new outposts by the security cabinet earlier this month.
Sha’ban described the moves as a “dangerous escalation” that reveals the Israeli government’s intentions to implement annexation, racial segregation, and the complete Judaization of Palestinian land. He asserted that this is part of a systematic policy led by the current government to legitimize settlement outposts.
“This decision represents a blatant challenge to international law and Security Council resolutions,” Sha’ban stated. “It sounds the alarm about the future of the West Bank, which is undergoing a systematic colonization process aimed at uprooting the Palestinian presence and transforming cities and villages into isolated and besieged enclaves.”
Sha’ban further noted that the Israeli government is operating according to a strategic vision to eliminate the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state by expanding settlements and connecting them with road networks that primarily serve settlers.
He affirmed that the Commission, in cooperation with official and popular bodies, will continue its legal, diplomatic, and field work to expose these policies to the international community. He called on the United Nations and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to take urgent action to halt this expansion.
Approximately 750,000 settlers reside in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, including 250,000 in East Jerusalem. These settlers have been accused of committing daily attacks against Palestinians with the aim of forcibly displacing them. Since October 2023, Israel has intensified its operations in the West Bank through house demolitions and settlement expansion.
Palestinian statistics indicate that over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed, around 11,000 injured, and thousands have been arrested in the West Bank.
