Israeli security cabinet secretly approved the legalisation of more than 30 new settler outposts and farms in the occupied West Bank last month.
The approval was not publicly announced. Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Two of the sources said the approval was kept quiet to avoid international criticism, particularly against the backdrop of rising settler violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war, reports CNN.
The authorisation is part of an ongoing push by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government to expand settlements and entrench Israel’s grip on the land, with the aim of burying the possibility of a future Palestinian state.
Palestinians want a state in territories Israel captured during the 1967 war, including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The move defies international law, which considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal. Outposts are deemed illegal under both Israeli and international law, but settlers have successfully established dozens of unauthorised outposts in recent years and later secured government approval.
Israeli media reported that the decision also includes the construction of electricity and water infrastructure for the outposts.
According to Israeli Peace Now Settlement Watch, a record 86 new outposts were established in 2025. In recent years, settlers on some outposts have forced the expulsion and displacement of Palestinian communities through violence and harassment.
Palestinian Authority condemned the move, calling it “a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions”. A statement from President Mahmoud Abbas’s office said the decision “represents a further Israeli step to implement annexation, expansionist and displacement plans”, and called on the international community, especially the US, to intervene immediately.
The decision, made during a security cabinet meeting on 25 March, comes amid a surge in settler violence towards Palestinians since the beginning of the Iran war. According to the Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din, there were 305 incidents of settler violence between 28 February and 29 March, averaging more than ten incidents a day, including assaults, property damage and land takeovers.
Last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) diverted a combat battalion from the northern border with Lebanon to the West Bank amid the wartime surge in settler violence.
During the cabinet meeting discussing the new outposts, IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir warned ministers that the military is under severe strain due to manpower shortages and expanded operational demands, including in the West Bank, according to two Israeli sources briefed on the meeting.
Netanyahu’s security cabinet also backed a directive in the same meeting targeting Jewish “nationalist crimes” in the West Bank.
The measure, first reported by Euronews, instructs the IDF and police to clamp down on settler violence, reinforce troop presence in friction areas, and establish a dedicated unit within the defence ministry to tackle the “Hilltop Youth” phenomenon – a term describing far-right extremist religious-nationalist Jewish youth operating in the West Bank.
One official said the directive was “issued by the prime minister after a series of initial internal discussions and then ratified by the cabinet”. Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comments.
Peace Now denounced the government’s decision. “It is now clear to everyone – and the IDF keeps emphasising this – that establishing settlements harms security, imposes an intolerable burden on the army, and undermines the possibility of resolving the conflict and achieving any form of security or future peace.”
The issue of settler violence and settlement expansion generated significant attention and debate in Israeli media in late March, in which Israeli soldiers echoed settler ideology, spoke of revenge after targeting Palestinians, and detained and assaulted a CNN crew in the West Bank.
Israeli military’s top general took swift action, suspending all operational activities of a reserve battalion involved in the detention of CNN’s team – including dismissing one soldier from military service.
