Israeli government secretly approves over 30 new settler outposts
By Tal Shalev, CNN
(CNN) — The Israeli security cabinet secretly approved the legalization of over 30 new settler outposts and farms in the occupied West Bank last month, according to three Israeli sources familiar with the decision.
Unlike similar decisions in the past, the approval was not publicly announced by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who did not respond to CNN request for comment. Two of the sources told CNN the approval was kept quiet to avoid international criticism against the backdrop of surging settler violence toward Palestinians in the West Bank since the outset of the Iran war.
The authorization is part of an ongoing push by the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand the settlements and entrench Israel’s grip on the land, with the goal of burying the possibility of a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinians want a state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 war, including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The push to legalize the outposts has been carried out in defiance of international law, which considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal. Outposts are considered illegal under both Israeli and international law, but settlers have successfully established dozens of unauthorized outposts in recent years and eventually secured Israeli government approvals.
Israeli media reported the decision also includes construction of electricity and water infrastructure to the outposts.
According to Israeli Peace Now Settlement Watch, in 2025 a record number of 86 new outposts were established. In recent years, some of the settlers on those outposts have forced the expulsion and displacement of Palestinian communities following settler violence and harassment.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the move, calling it “a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions.” A statement from the office of the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, said the decision “represents a further Israeli step to implement annexation, expansionist, and displacement plans,” calling on the international community, especially the US, to intervene immediately.
The decision to legalize the outposts, made in a security cabinet meeting on March 25, 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 February 28 and March 29, with an average of over 10 incidents a day including assaults, property damage, and land takeovers.
Military under severe strain
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last month 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, the IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir warned government ministers that the military is under severe strain due to manpower shortages and expanded operational demands, including in the West Bank, according to the two Israeli sources, who were briefed on the details of the meeting.
In the same meeting, Netanyahu’s security cabinet also backed a directive targeting Jewish “nationalist crimes” in the West Bank, two Israeli officials told CNN. The measure, first reported by Euronews, instructs the IDF and the police to clamp down on settler violence, reinforces troop presence in friction areas, and establishes a dedicated unit within the ministry of defense to tackle the “Hilltop Youth” phenomenon – a term describing far-right extremist religious-nationalist Jewish youth operating in West Bank. One official said that the directive was “issued by the prime minister after a series of initial internal discussions and then ratified by the cabinet.”. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Peace Now denounced the government’s decision.
“It is now clear to everyone – and the IDF keeps emphasizing 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 in the West Bank generated significant attention and debate in Israeli media in late March, following a CNN report in which Israeli soldiers echoed settler ideology, spoke of revenge after targeting Palestinians and detained and assaulted a CNN crew in the West Bank. The Israeli military’s top general took swift action, suspending all operational activities of a reserve battalion involved in the detention of CNN’s team in the West Bank – including dismissing one soldier from military service.
CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman contributed to this report
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