Israel’s cabinet has approved the construction of 34 settlements in the occupied West Bank, a record number that pushes the Palestinian territory further towards annexation.
The decision includes colonies in the far north of the West Bank, in areas that even the Israeli army “rarely reaches”, reported Israeli outlet i24 News.
It said the cabinet decided to keep “the dramatic event” secret to avoid American condemnation. US President Donald Trump has previously said that Israeli annexation of the West Bank would not happen.
Preliminary maps reveal a “systematic and widespread targeting of Palestinian lands”, especially in the north, said Muayyad Shaaban, a Palestinian official on settlement issues.
He called the approval “an extremely dangerous leap”.
Israel’s ultranationalist government, which contains many settlers, has significantly expanded its decades-long settlement programme under the cover of Israel’s regional wars since 2023. Settlements are illegal under international law.
The latest approval follows a series of Israeli government steps to tighten its grip over the West Bank and destroy hopes for a two-state solution, most countries' preferred route to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Addressing the report, left-wing Israeli politician Gilad Kariv said the Israeli government “continues its madness of de facto annexation”. He accused it of prioritising West Bank settlers over residents of northern Israel, which has been under fire from Hezbollah.
Mr Kariv added that “every new settlement harms the [Israeli military’s] ability to defend” frontline areas within Israel.
“Those who stay silent in the face of the establishment of dozens of new isolated settlements should not be surprised when they have to condemn acts of terror by extremist settlers,” he added, referring to the rise in settler violence in the West Bank.
Citing several sources, the i24 News report said Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, was present at the cabinet meeting and “did not explicitly object, but had reservations due to manpower limitations”.
Lt Gen Zamir recently said Israel’s military could “collapse in on itself” as it faces troop shortages and a rising number of deployments.
Israeli anti-settlement activist Hagit Ofran said of the report: “The government knows its days are numbered and is trying to get as much done as possible.”
She also accused the government of “concealing the details”, adding that “this is a cabinet decision from a week and a half ago that was kept under wraps”.
Israel’s government began 2026 with a set of legal changes that consolidate the country’s power over the West Bank.
In February, anti-settler group Peace Now accused Israel of moving to expand the borders of Jerusalem for the first time since 1967, which it said would amount to “annexation through the back door”.
The move would be a significant escalation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. East Jerusalem is supposed to form the capital of a Palestinian state under the Oslo Accords.
A day earlier, the government had approved a plan to allow land registration in the West Bank, giving Israeli authorities power to irreversibly determine ownership of land there.
The government also unveiled measures to make it easier for Israelis to buy Palestinian land in the territory and for the state, instead of Palestinian authorities, to exercise more control over sensitive religious sites.
