In response to the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to establish 22 new settlements, Israeli NGO Peace Now tells the Guardian that the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is Israel’s “central goal.”
My colleague Bethan McKernan has written about her time as the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent.
Read more about Bethan’s experiences here…
Human rights groups and anti-settlement NGOs say a slide towards at least de facto annexation of the occupiedWest Bankhas quickened since the war in Gaza began following Hamas’s attack on Israel back in October 2023.
“The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal,” the Peace Now group said in a statement.
They added that the move “will dramatically reshape the West Bank and further entrench the occupation”.
In an announcement, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Yoel Smotrich, preemptively defended the move, arguing: “We have not taken a foreign land, but the heritage of our ancestors.”
Palestinian ambassador to theUnited Nations, Riyad Mansour, delivered an emotional address to the security council.
He broke down in tears as he described the suffering of Palestinian children and the ongoing war inGaza. He slammed his fist on the table, pausing his speech, and told the summit: “I have grandchildren, I know what they mean to their families.”
It has been 600 days since the war in Gaza began, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians
A picture says a thousand words. And the imagery slowly seeping out ofGazatells a story that many politicians and media figures are still doing their best to ignore or obfuscate.
Israeli strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians overnight in Gaza, the Associated Press reports.According to local hospitals, Four were killed in a strike on a car in Gaza City late Wednesday, and another eight, including two women and three children, were killed in a strike on a home in Jabaliya. A strike on a built-up refugee camp in central Gaza killed one person and wounded 18.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants are embedded in populated areas.
Here’s a reminder of what the World Food Programme has said about the desperate humanitarian crisis unfolding inGaza.
The WFP says 100% of people in Gaza face acute levels of food insecurity; 70,000 children in the region are expected to require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition; $265 million is needed for WFP operations in Gaza and theWest Bankfrom March to August 2025, and famine threatens people across the region as violence intensifies, border crossings remain closed and food is dangerously scarce.
The WFP calls on the prioritisation of civilians by allowing adequate aid into Gaza immediately.
More information is available on theirwebsite.
Responding to the chaos surrounding distributing aid inGaza, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) say they are concerned that new aid mechanisms will prevent humanitarian aid to be delivered in the region in a way that conforms to established humanitarian principles like independence, impartiality and humanity.
In a statement on Thursday an ICRC spokesperson said:
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has voiced his disapproval of the new US proposal for a phased ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.
“I object to giving a lifeline to Hamas,” Smotrich tells Radio 103FM. “Hamas is in distress. The new [Israeli-backed] system for handing out aid cuts off Hamas from the residents.
“We’re not leaving areas we’ve conquered,”
IDF strikes on Gazan refugee camp kill 19, health ministry says
A series of “major” Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Bureij refugee camp have killed 19 people, bringing today’s death toll to at least 37, Al Jazeera reports.
This is a developing story. More to follow.
In his 1971 novel The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth renders a rich plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle, the French president. The conspirators are pied-noirs, the term used to describe Frenchmen born in Algeria during the colonial occupation there. They grieve De Gaulle’s exit from north Africa, which they regard as a betrayal. Unable to remain in the former colony, they return home – dejected and emasculated – and murderous. In many ways, the pied-noirs regard themselves as being more French than the French…
Here’s some background information on the conflict in theWest Bankcourtesy of the Associated Press:
Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to 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 three million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres. The settlers have Israeli citizenship.
Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years — long before Hamas’ October 7 attack ignited the war inGaza— confining Palestinians to smaller and smaller areas of the West Bank and making the prospect of establishing a viable, independent state even more remote.
The top United Nations court ruled last year that Israel’s presence in the occupiedPalestinian territoriesis unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel denounced the non-binding opinion by a 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people.
During his first term, President Donald Trump’s administration broke with decades of U.S. foreign policy by supporting Israel’s claims to territory seized by force and taking steps to legitimize the settlements. Former President Joe Biden, like most of his predecessors, opposed the settlements but applied little pressure to Israel to curb their growth.
Driven by Defence MinisterIsraelKatz and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, the decision will look to renew illegal settlement activity in northern Samaria and build new settlements on the Jordan Valley border.
Defence minister Katz, whose critics have accused him of using genocidal language directed at civilians inGaza, said:
Welcome to our ongoing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East
Israel has authorised 22 Jewish settlements in the occupiedWest Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation, its defence minister has said.
Israel Katz said the settlement decision “strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical term for the West Bank, “anchors our historical right in the Land ofIsrael, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.”Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers.
We’ll be bringing you more on this shortly. In other developments:
Four people have died as thousands of starving Palestinians burst into a United Nations warehouse in Deir al-Balah in Gaza. Two were fatally crushed and two others died of gunshot wounds, health officials said. It was not immediately clear if Israeli forces, private contractors or others had opened fire.
Donald Trump has claimed he warned Israel against attacking Iran because he believed he wasvery close to a dealon Tehran’s nuclear programme. As part of that deal US inspectors will be given unparalleled access to sites to ensure the country is not planning to build a nuclear bomb.
Thousands of family members of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza held protests across the country, blocking traffic and calling for a deal securing the release of their loved ones from captivity and an end to the conflict.