The Civil Administration's Supreme Planning Council is set to approve the construction of 682 housing units in three settlements: Halamish, Metzad and Pedval today, Wednesday. According to the plans, 531 housing units will be built in the settlement of Halamish, also known as Neve Tzuf, which will double the number of settlers there. In the settlement of Metzad (Asfar), 126 housing units will be built, and in Pedval 25 housing units.

The Peace Now movement stated that the second year of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government is the year in which the implementation of the government’s annexation plans began, as specified in the coalition agreement by the end of 2022. In 2023, the settlement administration was formed in the Ministry of Defense, headed by Minister Smotrich, within the framework of the coalition agreements between the Likud and Religious Zionism. In parallel, Itamar Ben Gvir took over the Ministry of National Security and became Minister of Police, which reduced law enforcement on settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians.

The year 2024 was marked by a policy of reducing the living space of Palestinians in Areas C and B and expanding the Israeli presence in both areas. No previous year had witnessed such infringement on the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, nor such weakness in dealing with settler attacks and their construction violations and their violation of Palestinian rights. In addition, budgets and approvals for settlement construction were transferred, and the legalization of settlement sites became unprecedented. This policy is being implemented through the establishment of a record number of random sites, the paving of an unprecedented number of roads, a sharp increase in the number of abuses of Palestinians, which the head of the Shin Bet described as Jewish terrorism, the closure of roads, and the whitewashing and support of random sites reached its peak. Since the formation of the current government, Israel has begun preparing the administrative structure for plans for the practical annexation of the West Bank by confiscating the powers of the Civil Administration and transferring them to a civil-political institution linked to Minister Smotrich.

Conditions in the West Bank during the year 2024

Settlements and outposts: At least 59 new outposts were established, most of them settlement farms that work to control land and expel Palestinians from it. This is an unprecedented number of new sites. By comparison, from 1996 until the beginning of 2023, an average of 7 sites were established per year.

Random sites in Area B: Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, at least 8 random sites have been established in Area B, meaning that 13% of the random sites established in 2024 are located in Area B. Hundreds of illegal roads have been paved, extending over 114 kilometers, for the expansion of settlements.

Approval of plans for 9,884 settlement units - The Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration approved these plans. In November 2024, the government decision issued in June 2023, which stipulated that settlement projects do not need to obtain approval from the political echelon, was implemented. The Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration began holding weekly meetings to approve building plans, and within six weeks it approved the construction of approximately 2,400 housing units.

New tenders issued for the construction of 1,399 housing units in the West Bank, excluding Jerusalem.

24,258 dunams of West Bank land were declared as state land, which is approximately half of the land declared as state land since the signing of the Oslo Accords until today.

The cabinet decided to establish five new settlements - Avtar, Givat Asif, Sde Ephraim, Adorim and Nahal Haltz, all of which are outposts that will become settlements. The process of legalizing five other sites as neighborhoods of existing settlements has begun - the sites of Ahiye and Beit Eliyahu, and the deposit of plans to legalize the sites of Mahana De and Givat Hanan has been approved. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich instructed government ministries and other institutions to provide financial support to 70 outposts for the purpose of building public buildings and connecting them to water and electricity networks, etc.

Settlers stormed a house in Hebron under the pretext that it had been purchased from Palestinians. The settlers were able to storm it after obtaining a “contract license” from circles connected to Smotrich. A plan was also published to establish a new settlement in Hebron, including 234 housing units, north of Kiryat Arba.

Money and budgets

The government doubled the budget of the Ministry of Settlement and the funds allocated to the Settlement Division by NIS 302 million. Smotrich spoke about an agreement he made with Miri Regev, the Minister of Transportation, which stipulates allocating NIS 7 billion to pave roads between settlement cities. In 2024, approval was given to pave many roads aimed at increasing the area of the settlements and the number of settlers in them. NIS 409 million were allocated for special projects in the settlements, including preserving antiquities in the West Bank, reconstructing the Sebastia Park, and developing the Old City Basin in Jerusalem (tourist settlement in East Jerusalem) as part of projects supervised by the Elad settlement association. NIS 75 million were allocated for random sites, including about NIS 39 million for settlement farms, some of which are characterized by violence against Palestinians.

Annexation steps

The powers of settlement and land confiscation were transferred from the army to an employee subordinate to Smotrich. The minister appointed a settler employee and called him “Deputy Head of the Civil Administration.” He is considered, in practice, the governor of the settlements and is not linked to the Civil Administration, but only to Smotrich. The position of legal advisor to the Civil Administration was transferred from the army to a judicial system linked to Smotrich. The government seized the powers of law enforcement in part of Area B from the Palestinian Authority, in complete contradiction to the Oslo Accords. The commander of the Central Command, under the direction of the cabinet, signed an order that gives Israel the power to demolish Palestinian homes in areas called “agreed reserves” under Palestinian control, and the monitoring unit began demolishing buildings erected in these areas.

Preventing Palestinians from accessing their agricultural lands: The army and settlers prevent Palestinians from accessing their agricultural lands surrounding settlements. Israel demolished 1,067 Palestinian structures in the West Bank under the pretext of not having building permits, 17 of which were in Area B, causing 857 Palestinians to lose their homes. For comparison, in 2016, which was the peak year for the demolition of Palestinian structures, 870 structures were demolished, and 2,704 Palestinian homes were demolished in the context of military operations, especially in Jenin and Tulkarm (the number is correct as of 1/25/14). In 2024, 215 homes were demolished in East Jerusalem under the pretext of not having building permits. The municipality began demolishing homes in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan as part of plans to demolish the entire neighborhood in order to establish a tourist park called “The King’s Garden.” In the Al-Bustan neighborhood alone, 15 homes were demolished out of a total of 100 homes for which demolition orders were issued.