AFP, United Nations

The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking such data, according to a report by the UN chief seen by AFP on Friday.

In 2025, “plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, compared with some 26,170 in 2024,” the report said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the “relentless” expansion, saying it “continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State.”

“These figures represent a sharp increase compared to previous years,” he added, noting an average of 12,815 housing units were added annually between 2017 and 2022.

Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since Israel’s war on Gaza. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,022 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the conflict, according to AFP.