DaysofPal – The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) has revealed a new Israeli plan to construct 2,721 new housing units across several settlements in the occupied West Bank.
According to a statement released by the Commission, the Higher Planning Council of the Israeli Civil Administration is scheduled to convene on Wednesday, June 3, to discuss this latest package of settlement projects. In addition to the housing units, the agenda includes regulatory and structural master plans aimed at expanding the jurisdictional boundaries of these settlements and strengthening their legal and infrastructural frameworks.
The proposed units are distributed across multiple settlements throughout the West Bank. The most prominent allocations include a plan to construct 1,006 units in the Gva’ot settlement west of Bethlehem. This area is increasingly being established as an independent settlement after being officially separated from the Alon Shvut settlement in March 2025. The plans also allocate 922 units to Har Bracha south of Nablus, 455 units to Mevo Dotan west of Jenin, and 234 units to Kiryat Arba east of Hebron.
The upcoming council session will also address modifications to construction boundaries, changes to land-use designations, and updates to building regulations. The Commission stated that these measures demonstrate the Israeli government’s commitment to finalizing the planning and legal infrastructure of its settlement project in tandem with physical urban expansion.
Threats of Creeping Annexation
The Commission warned that these blueprints reflect Israel’s ongoing strategy to enforce new realities on the ground by expanding existing outposts and developing urbanized settlement hubs. The statement cautioned that this step threatens further expropriation of Palestinian land and severely fragments the geographic continuity between Palestinian communities, serving as an extension of the creeping annexation policies implemented across various regions of the West Bank.
Data published by the Commission on March 30, marking Land Day, outlines the massive scale of this footprint. There are now approximately 542 settlement sites across the West Bank, consisting of 192 official settlements and 350 unauthorized outposts. Over 165 of these outposts were established after October 2023, with 59 created during 2025 alone. Together, these sites house a population of over 780,000 settlers.
Since October 2023, the West Bank has seen a sharp increase in settler attacks, frequently carried out under the protection of Israeli forces. These incidents have been heavily concentrated in rural and pastoral areas adjacent to outposts, which often serve as staging grounds for attacks on Palestinian residents and their properties.
According to a comprehensive data report released by the Palestinian Government Media Office on May 26, this overall escalation in the West Bank has exacted a severe toll. The violence has resulted in 1,168 Palestinians killed, 12,666 injured, approximately 23,000 arrested, and 33,000 individuals displaced.
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