Israel announces it will establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel announced Thursday that it would establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank .

This would include new settlements and the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization .

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision "strengthens our control over Judea and Samaria," using the biblical term for the West Bank. "It anchors our historic right to the Land of Israel and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism."

He added that it was also "a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel," AP reports.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim all three territories for their future state. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-long conflict.

Israel has already built more than 100 settlements across the country, housing some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with apartment blocks, shopping malls, factories, and public parks.

The West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians , who live under Israeli military rule, while the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administers the population centers. Settlers have Israeli citizenship.

Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years, even before the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 , which sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag expressed concern to the Security Council about the "dangerous trajectory" in the occupied West Bank , where there is "an acceleration of de facto annexation through settlement expansion, land confiscations, and settler violence," AFP reports.

If this situation does not change, the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living side by side "will be physically impossible," he warned.

The Israeli incursion into Gaza intensified this month amid a humanitarian crisis, as mediators press for a ceasefire and the release of Israelis held hostage following the October 2023 Hamas attack.