Advancement of 401 housing units in the West Bank, Including plans for two new settlements and legalization of one outpost

The Higher Planning Council will convene on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, to advance plans for 401 housing units. What makes this session distinctive is the nature of the plans under consideration. Of the five plans, two, in Noa and Metzukei Eretz, are intended to enable the placement of mobile-home neighborhoods at sites designated for new settlements.

During the tenure of the current government, decisions have been made at various points to establish 104 new settlements. The decision to establish the Avigayil settlement was made shortly after the current government took office, in February 2023. The Metzukei Eretz settlement is located on land of the Palestinian village of al-Mu’arrajat, whose residents were forcibly displaced in October 2023 following settler violence. The decision to establish a settlement at this location was made in December 2025. The Noa settlement is located in the Jenin Governorate, at a site where Israelis had been prohibited from entering until the current government’s term. The decision to establish a settlement there was made in March 2026.

To implement a government decision to establish a new settlement, its outline plan must be approved by the Higher Planning Council, which operates under the Civil Administration in the West Bank. The discussions scheduled for this coming Wednesday are intended to advance the implementation of government decisions and retroactively legalize outposts that have already been established on the ground. In the case of Avigayil, this constitutes the final stage of the planning process. In the cases of Metzukei Eretz and Noa, the proceedings are intended to retroactively authorize mobile homes that are already in place. Since the formation of the current Netanyahu government, 46,446 housing units have been advanced between January 2023 and October 2026.

Peace Now: The Higher Planning Council’s discussions, taking place one day after the elections, demonstrate that the Netanyahu government is working to prevent a peaceful resolution between Israelis and Palestinians right up to the very last moment. Instead of reducing friction with the Palestinian population, advancing settlement construction increases the security and economic burden on all Israeli citizens and perpetuates a bleak future for both peoples.

Settlement Plans Overview

Since November 2024, the Higher Planning Council has been holding weekly meetings to advance housing units in settlements. The shift to a weekly approval process not only normalizes settlement construction in the occupied territory but also accelerates its pace.

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