Palestinian territories recent development: Israel control over 44.5% of the West Bank and the number of settlers has tripled!
The Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization revealed, on Friday, a map showing that 44.5% of the West Bank lands are now under Israeli control.
The map, which was included in a report published by the department, provides an overview of the escalating settlement expansion in the West Bank, as it shows that Israel built 5 new settlements in 2024 alone, in addition to 50 new settlement outposts.
The map showed that 44.5% of the West Bank lands are now under Israeli control or have been annexed behind the separation wall.
The report indicated that the number of settlers in the West Bank has tripled since 1995, reaching about 740,000 in 2024.
The department warned in its report that Israel’s policies are quickly and irreversibly eliminating a viable two-state solution.
The report pointed out that if settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank continues as usual, the settlements could expand to 5 times their current size on the confiscated lands.
The United Nations considers settlement in the occupied territories an illegal activity, has called in vain for decades to stop it, and warns that it undermines the chances of resolving the conflict according to the principle of two states (Palestinian and Israeli).
Since the start of the war of extermination on Gaza, Tel Aviv has accelerated and expanded the pace of settlement in the West Bank, and its talk of annexing the West Bank to Israel has escalated, and its rejection of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state has increased.
While Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is demanding that US President Donald Trump recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank, the latter said on February 4 that his administration will issue a decision soon regarding it.
Between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, Israel, with American support, committed genocide in Gaza, leaving more than 160,000 Palestinian casualties (dead/wounded), most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.
