Cabinet Decision on the Establishment of 34 New Settlements

This morning it was reported that the Security Cabinet secretly decided to establish 34 new settlements. This refers to a cabinet decision from March 25, 2026, which was kept confidential until now. Apparently, the government refrained from publishing the news in order not to anger the Americans during the fighting against Iran, but now that a ceasefire has been achieved, they are rushing to publish it.

Reports from the cabinet meeting held last week—dubbed the IDF Chief of Staff’s “Red Flags” meeting—included warnings from the Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir. He cautioned that the IDF could collapse and fail to carry out its missions in light of escalating settler violence.

It is now being reported that the Chief of Staff opposed the plan to establish additional new settlements on security grounds, due to the heavy burden the settlements place on the IDF, which is required to protect numerous points of settlements in the occupied territories.

Peace Now: The government has gone into a frenzy ahead of the elections, seeking to create as many facts on the ground as possible and leave Israel with scorched earth. Today it is already clear to everyone—and the IDF emphasizes this again and again—that the establishment of settlements harms security, places an abnormal burden on the IDF, and undermines the possibility of resolving the conflict and achieving any future security and peace.

The 34 settlements that were approved join 68 new settlements that the government has decided upon since its formation, making the total number of settlements decided to be established by this government to 102 settlements. Until the establishment of this government there were 127 official settlements in the West Bank. Adding another 102 settlements is an increase of 80%.

For the full list of all the settlements approved by the government with their location see here.

The i24 report mentions 103 settlements. This is likely because the settlement of Givat Harel was approved twice—once as a joint settlement with Givat HaRoeh and once independently.

As noted, the decision has not been officially published, and the information available to us is based solely on media reports. According to the detailed list published by Yinon Yittach of i24news,  out of the 34 settlements, 10 are outposts that would be legalized, and 24 are new settlements. All of the new settlements are located in Area C.

The list of the 34 settlements approved by the cabinet on 25/3/26:

For the full list of the 102 settlements approved by the government with the coordinates – see here.