Watchdog says plans advancing for nearly 1,000 more settler homes in West Bank
Peace Now accuses government of operating ‘on steroids’ to establish facts on the ground even as hostages languish in captivity in Gaza
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View of Efrat and its surroundings on a winter day, in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank on January 18, 2021. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
Israel issued a tender for the construction of nearly 1,000 additional settler homes in the West Bank, an anti-settlement watchdog said Monday.
Peace Now said the development of 974 new housing units would allow the population of the Efrat settlement to expand by 40 percent and further block the development of the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem. The project, approved last year, will increase the land area of Efrat by 644 dunams (160 acres), Peace Now said, expanding the settlement’s footprint by about 10%.
Hagit Ofran, who leads the group’s settlement monitoring, said construction can begin after the contracting process and issuing of permits, which could take another year at least.
The left-wing Peace Now, which favors a negotiated two-state solution to the Iraeli-Palestinian conflict, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of pressing ahead with settlement construction while dozens of hostages captured in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion languish in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
“While the people of Israel (set) their sights on the release of the hostages and an end to the war, the Netanyahu government is operating ‘on steroids’ to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise,” it said in a statement.
View of Efrat and its surroundings on a winter day, in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank on January 18, 2021. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
Israel issued a tender for the construction of nearly 1,000 additional settler homes in the West Bank, an anti-settlement watchdog said Monday.
Peace Now said the development of 974 new housing units would allow the population of the Efrat settlement to expand by 40 percent and further block the development of the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem. The project, approved last year, will increase the land area of Efrat by 644 dunams (160 acres), Peace Now said, expanding the settlement’s footprint by about 10%.
Hagit Ofran, who leads the group’s settlement monitoring, said construction can begin after the contracting process and issuing of permits, which could take another year at least.
The left-wing Peace Now, which favors a negotiated two-state solution to the Iraeli-Palestinian conflict, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of pressing ahead with settlement construction while dozens of hostages captured in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion languish in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
“While the people of Israel (set) their sights on the release of the hostages and an end to the war, the Netanyahu government is operating ‘on steroids’ to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise,” it said in a statement.
On October 7, 2023, Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, abducting 251 as hostages to Gaza, and triggering war.
A complex and fragile three-stage ceasefire that began last month includes the release of hostages.
View of houses in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem. October 25, 2021. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
Last year the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee approved 3,500 new settlement homes across the West Bank including 694 in Efrat.
In its statement, Peace Now claimed there would be also be an additional 280 units for assisted living.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state and view the settlements as a major obstacle to peace, a position with wide international support. According to Peace Now, Efrat juts into territory that would be needed by the Palestinians for a contiguous state in the northern and southern West Bank.
Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and sees it as part of its unified capital.
US President Donald Trump lent unprecedented support to the settlements during his previous term and also moved the US embassy to the capital. Israel has also steadily expanded settlements during Democratic administrations, which were more critical but rarely took any action to curb them.
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