Palestinians denounce Israel’s new settlement plan as 'blatant annexation'

Palestinian authorities have condemned an Israeli plan to build a new illegal settlement that would expand occupied East Jerusalem into the West Bank on Monday.

The Israeli government earlier this month announced a plan to construct almost 2,800 new units in an extension to the Geva Binyamin (Adam) settlement, northeast of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.

But the houses would be positioned on the other side of the separation wall, effectively making the project an extension of the Neve Yaakov settlement in East Jerusalem.

This would be the first expansion of the city since Israel began occupying the territory in 1967.

The Jerusalem governorate called the plan "a blatant attempt to conceal the annexation process", according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

"These measures expose the occupation's policy of gradual annexation and the imposition of de facto sovereignty, within the framework of a project aimed at changing the geographical and demographic character of the occupied city of Jerusalem," it said in a statement.

Israeli rights monitor Peace Now described the construction as "de facto annexation through the back door".

"The new settlement will function in every way as a neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and its designation as a 'neighbourhood' of the Adam settlement is merely a pretext intended to conceal a move that effectively applies Israeli sovereignty to areas of the West Bank," it said.

The settlement, which is intended for ultra-orthodox Jews, could be finished in a few years if it gets final approval by the government, according to Israeli media.

The Israeli government has radically accelerated settlement expansion under the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's new settlements administration.

In 2025, the government approved plans for a record 28,163 housing units across the territory, according to Peace Now.

This included the E1 settlement that would cut the West Bank in half and prevent the Palestinians from forming a state on the occupied territory.

Earlier in February, ministers approved new rules making it easier for Jewish settlers to acquire land in the West Bank and expanding Israeli control over areas run by the Palestinian Authority.

Fresh settler attacks

Dozens of sheep were killed after settlers set fire to a livestock pen on a Palestinian farm near Hebron on Tuesday, according to Palestinian media.

Online footage showed piles of charred bodies on the farm, located in the village of as-Samu, south of Hebron.

Separate attacks in the territory's north saw settler extremists force dozens of Palestinians off their land, Wafa reported.

Fifteen Bedouin families dismantled their homes in the northern Jordan Valley and fled the area due to the attacks.

Seven families from the nearby Maita community were forced to leave days earlier.

More than 700,000 Israelis live illegally in settlements and outposts in the West Bank. Around 3.3 million Palestinians live in the territory.

Almost 700 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in January by the intensifying settler violence, according to the UN.

The attacks are often perpetrated under the watch of the Israeli military, which routinely carries out raids, conducts sweeping arrests, and imposes restrictions on movement.