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Group Reports ‘Unprecedented Surge’ in Approvals for West Bank Israeli Settler Homes

An Israeli army soldier hangs a wooden beam carrying an Israeli flag banner atop the Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers overnight, in Hebron city near the Israeli settlement area of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
An Israeli army soldier hangs a wooden beam carrying an Israeli flag banner atop the Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers overnight, in Hebron city near the Israeli settlement area of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Group Reports ‘Unprecedented Surge’ in Approvals for West Bank Israeli Settler Homes

An Israeli army soldier hangs a wooden beam carrying an Israeli flag banner atop the Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers overnight, in Hebron city near the Israeli settlement area of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
An Israeli army soldier hangs a wooden beam carrying an Israeli flag banner atop the Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers overnight, in Hebron city near the Israeli settlement area of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank on March 24, 2025. (AFP)

An Israeli anti-settlement group says there has been an “unprecedented surge” in approvals for new settler homes in the occupied West Bank since US President Donald Trump returned to office.

During his first term, Trump strongly backed Israel’s claims to territories seized in war, at times upending decades of American foreign policy. Previous administrations have admonished Israel over settlement expansion while taking little action to curb it.

The Peace Now group, which closely tracks settlement growth, said Monday that plans for 10,503 housing units in the West Bank have been advanced since the start of the year, compared to just 9,971 in all of 2024. It says another 1,344 homes are set to be approved on Wednesday.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements that are now home to over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers.

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German, Austrian Ministers Break Off Planned Syria Trip Because of Possible Threat

27 March 2025, Jordan, Amman: Nancy Faeser (L), Germany's acting Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, and Gerhard Karner, Austrian Minister of the Interior, inform the members of their delegations a hotel in Amman that their trip to Syria has been canceled. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
27 March 2025, Jordan, Amman: Nancy Faeser (L), Germany's acting Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, and Gerhard Karner, Austrian Minister of the Interior, inform the members of their delegations a hotel in Amman that their trip to Syria has been canceled. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
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German, Austrian Ministers Break Off Planned Syria Trip Because of Possible Threat

27 March 2025, Jordan, Amman: Nancy Faeser (L), Germany's acting Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, and Gerhard Karner, Austrian Minister of the Interior, inform the members of their delegations a hotel in Amman that their trip to Syria has been canceled. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
27 March 2025, Jordan, Amman: Nancy Faeser (L), Germany's acting Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, and Gerhard Karner, Austrian Minister of the Interior, inform the members of their delegations a hotel in Amman that their trip to Syria has been canceled. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

The German and Austrian interior ministers broke off a planned trip to Syria on Thursday because of a possible threat to their delegation, German authorities said.
Germany's Nancy Faeser had planned to visit Damascus with Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner, and a German military plane was supposed to fly Faeser's delegation into Syria from Jordan on Thursday morning.
But her ministry said that the trip was broken off before the flight could depart from Amman “because of concrete warnings by German security authorities of a terrorist threat,” German news agency dpa reported. It added that a threat to the delegation couldn't be ruled out, and that it wouldn't have been responsible to travel in view of that possible threat.
The trip hadn't been announced ahead of time. The two ministers had planned to speak with ministers in the interim government and with representatives of UN aid organizations, The Associated Press said.
Germany in particular has been a major destination for Syrian refugees over the past decade.
Last week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Damascus and reopened the German Embassy, 13 years after it was shut in the early days of Syria’s civil war.
Baerbock, who met interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and others, said Europe needs “eyes and ears” on the ground as it follows the Syrian political transition. It was her second visit since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December.