Israel gives 'legal' status to 19 West Bank settlements

Israel's cabinet has decided to give "legal" status to 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including two that were vacated 20 years ago under a pullout aimed at boosting the country's security and the economy, Israeli media reported.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, but the settlements which Israel claims are now "legal" were built unilaterally by Israeli settlers without state authorisation.

The Palestinian Authority on Friday condemned the move, announced late on Thursday.

Some of the settlements are newly established, while others are older, Israeli media said.

The move to legalise the settlements in the West Bank - Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967 - was proposed by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz.

Numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

Construction of settlements has increased under Israel's far-right governing coalition, fragmenting the West Bank and cutting off Palestinian towns and cities from each other.

The 19 settlements include two that Israel withdrew from in 2005, evacuated under a disengagement plan overseen by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that focused mainly on Gaza.

Under the plan, which was opposed by the settler movement at the time, all 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza were ordered to be evacuated. Most settlements in the West Bank were unaffected.

In a statement on Friday, Palestinian Authority minister Mu’ayyad Sha’ban called the announcement another step to erase Palestinian geography.

Sha'ban, of the Palestinian Authority's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said the decision raised serious alarm over the future of the West Bank.

Home to 2.7 million Palestinians, the Israeli-occupied West Bank has long been at the heart of plans for a future Palestinian nation existing alongside Israel.

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians reached their highest recorded levels in October with settlers carrying out at least 264 attacks, according to the United Nations.