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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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Hamas Spokesperson Qanoua Killed in Israeli Airstrike

People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hamas Spokesperson Qanoua Killed in Israeli Airstrike

People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
People walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, Hamas-affiliated media said early on Thursday, the latest group figure to be killed since Israel resumed its operations in the enclave.
Al-Qanoua was killed when his tent was targeted in Jabalia, the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television said, according to Reuters. The same strike wounded several people, while separate attacks killed at least six in Gaza City and one in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, medical sources said.
Earlier this week, Israel killed Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas' political office, and Salah al-Bardaweel, another senior leader.
Both Bardaweel and Barhoum were members of the 20-member Hamas decision-making body, the political office, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.
Last week, Israel ended a two-month-old ceasefire by resuming bombing and ground operations, increasing pressure on Hamas to free the remaining hostages in its captivity.
At least 830 people, over half of them children and women, have been killed since Israel resumed major military strikes in Gaza on March 18, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Israel and Hamas accused each other of breaching the truce. It had broadly held since January and offered respite from war for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack, accused Israel of jeopardizing efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension. He repeated threats on Wednesday to seize territory in Gaza if Hamas failed to release the remaining hostages it still holds.