This brings the total number of new settlements established by the government to 103 since it took office in 2022. Israel has formally approved only six new settlements in the 30 years following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Cabinet security meetings and their decisions are classified, and the government has not officially confirmed the decision.
Previous reports indicate that the new settlements likely include not only entirely new settlements but also the retroactive legalization of previously illegal outposts, and they are spread throughout the entire West Bank.
The organization Jesh Din, which fights against violations of Palestinian rights, claims that the approval of new settlements is designed to advance the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
"While we were running to bomb shelters, cabinet members were in a hurry to establish dozens of new settlements in the West Bank, thereby advancing the Smotrich plan for the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank by pushing Palestinians into small, densely populated enclaves in Area A," the group asserts.