Israeli settlers have established 14 new settlement outposts south of the city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.

On November 11, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had instructed the Settlement Administration and the Civil Administration (both under the Defense Ministry) to begin “professional and comprehensive groundwork to prepare the infrastructure necessary for the application of sovereignty” over the West Bank.

Smotrich pledged that 2025 would be the "year of Israeli sovereignty" over the West Bank, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.