Israel to expand three settlements in occupied East al-Quds with 3,400 settler units

Israeli regime authorities have advanced three major illegal settlement projects in occupied East al-Quds totaling more than 3,400 settler units. The plans have drawn strong condemnation for further fragmenting Palestinian neighborhoods and tightening Israeli control over the holy city.

Ir Amim, an Israeli organization that monitors settlement activity in East al-Quds, reported on Monday that the projects were advanced less than three months before the Knesset elections scheduled for October 27.

According to the group, the al-Quds District Planning and Building Committee last month deposited a plan for a new settlement of approximately 650 housing units in the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Tuba. The committee also approved two additional plans: one for about 450 settler units in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Lison, and another to expand the Gilo settlement by more than 2,300 units. All three sites are located in the southern part of occupied East al-Quds.

Ir Amim warned that the combined projects, exceeding 3,400 settler units, would deepen the fragmentation of Palestinian neighborhoods, reinforce Israeli control over the city, and undermine any prospects for a future political settlement.

Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, said the moves should not be seen as isolated planning decisions but as part of “an integrated policy implemented according to a calculated timetable.”

“Within a few weeks, and ahead of the elections, the Israeli regime is advancing three of the largest settlement projects in East al-Quds,” Tatarsky stated. He described the steps as an attempt to “create new facts on the ground,” reshape the city’s demographic and geographic landscape, deepen its separation from the occupied West Bank, and make any future political settlement significantly more difficult.

The current Israeli regime has been widely described as one of the most aggressive supporters of settlement expansion in the history of the occupied entity. In late June, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities were accelerating settlement construction, claiming that 160 settlement farms had been established and more than 100 new settlements approved.

Emboldened by the full support of US President Donald Trump, Israel has intensified its illegal settlement activities in open defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

The overwhelming majority of the international community regards Israeli settler units in the occupied territories as illegal. More than 700,000 Israeli settlers currently live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and the UN Security Council has repeatedly condemned Israel’s settlement policies in multiple resolutions.

Palestinians view these projects as part of a deliberate and accelerating Israeli policy aimed at expanding settlements, seizing Palestinian land, and creating irreversible facts on the ground.

‘Dangerous escalation’: Palestinian group decries Israeli push for new settlements

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has slammed an Israeli plan to build new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion ordering Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible” and declaring the regime’s presence unlawful.

In a related development on Monday, UN experts strongly condemned the sharp increase in attacks on Palestinian civilians across the besieged Gaza Strip in July, describing it as “a sharp deterioration of an already catastrophic human rights situation” and stating that “the genocide is continuing unabated.”

The experts denounced the advancing “Yellow Line” and the systematic demolition of buildings as “re-engineering the geography of illegally occupied Gaza through force and displacement.” They stressed that “nowhere in Gaza is safe,” noting that Israeli forces killed at least 160 Palestinians in July alone, bringing the death toll since last October’s ceasefire to more than 1,200.

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