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New outposts and funding
Israel’s defence and finance ministers announced plans for three illegal settlements in Gaza and more than $400m (£300m) in funding to expand construction in the occupied West Bank, with national elections scheduled for 27 October.
“Israel’s defence and finance ministers announced plans for three illegal settlements in Gaza”
The defence minister, Israel Katz, said he intended to set up three “Nahal” outposts in northern Gaza, and Maj Gen Avi Bluth told residents of extremist outposts that he “appreciates their work” and considered them to be partners in security with the military.
The cabinet allocated 1.3bn shekels (£318m) for dozens of new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the cabinet kept the decision secret because of expected US opposition, Israeli media reported.
In the same briefing, Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Maj Gen Tamir Yadai, told Katz that Israel controls 65% of Gaza, far beyond the 53% agreed under the ceasefire brokered last year by the US president, Donald Trump.
The Guardian also reported that Katz pushed for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through the large-scale migration of Palestinians, and that Yadai’s figures appeared to label 21,000 Palestinian children killed by Israeli attacks as “terrorists.”
EU pressure and settler violence
The European Union reiterated its call on Israel to refrain from further settlement expansion, with the EU’s diplomatic service spokesperson warning that such steps include “legalization of outposts, land appropriation, demolitions, evictions and other unilateral measures”.
Al Jazeera reported that the EU renewed the warning after Israel’s security cabinet approved 1.3 billion shekels ($427.8m) to establish 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Al Jazeera tied the renewed diplomatic pressure to continuing violence in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians, including children, were injured in incidents involving Israeli settlers and Israeli forces.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said ahead of talks among EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, “What is happening in the West Bank is actually making it more and more impossible that the two-state solution ever can come into effect,”.
In a separate report, the EU’s statement also said it urged Israel to stop the legalisation of settlement outposts, land appropriation, demolitions, forced evictions of Palestinians, and other actions that “undermine the viability of the two-state solution.”
Scale of expansion plans
A Palestinian agency warned that Israel is advancing new illegal settlement plans in the occupied West Bank involving the construction of 1,024 settlement units on more than 1,069 dunams (1,264.2 acres) of Palestinian land.
“construction of 1,024 settlement units on more than 1,069 dunams”
Anadolu Ajansı reported that the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said Israel’s Higher Planning Council, operating under the Civil Administration, discussed nine settlement plans since the beginning of July that entered approval and deposit stages.
The commission said 455 units were approved and 569 were deposited for additional planning procedures, and it described the drive as part of “a systematic policy” to strengthen settlement blocs through horizontal expansion and increased housing density.
Anadolu Ajansı also said the commission warned that Israel is increasingly focusing on expanding existing settlements rather than establishing entirely new ones by amending construction plans, land-use regulations and zoning to increase settlement density.
The Guardian’s account of the same broader political push placed the settlement expansion in the context of elections scheduled for 27 October, describing a far-right coalition racing to expand control of land in occupied Palestine and drive out Palestinians before its mandate expires.
