Advancement of 330 Housing Units in the West Bank

The Higher Planning Council is scheduled to convene on Wednesday (28 January 2026) to advance the approval of 330 housing units for final validation in the settlement of Kedar (Plan No. 421/4), located east of al-Eizariya. This will be the Council’s second discussion in 2026 concerning the advancement of settlement housing units, and it continues the pattern of weekly planning sessions held by the Higher Planning Council. Including the upcoming meeting, the total number of housing units approved by the Council in 2026 stands at 749.

Since November 2024, the Higher Planning Council has been holding weekly discussions to advance housing units in settlements. The shift to approving settlement plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in the occupied territories but also significantly accelerates it. In 2025 alone, the Higher Planning Council advanced 27,941 housing units, an unprecedented record since the establishment of the settlement enterprise in the West Bank.

One of the changes made by the Netanyahu-Smotrich government in June 2023 was the elimination of the need for defense minister approval for each stage of settlement plan advancement. Previously, every construction plan in settlements required prior approval from the defense minister. In recent years, the defense minister had limited settlement plan advancements to approximately four times a year, with thousands of housing units being approved in a single session of the Higher Planning Council. In recent weeks, we have witnessed a change where the Higher Planning Council meets every week and approves several hundred housing units in each meeting. In this way, the government seeks to normalize planning in settlements and attract less public and international attention and criticism.

List of Plans Approved Since January 2026