Israel allocates additional $274M for West Bank settlement projects in occupied West Bank

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

The Israeli government allocated an additional $274 million for settlement projects in the West Bank, hours after the Knesset approved a motion to annex the occupied territory, local media said on Thursday.

According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, Transport Minister Miri Regev and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the additional budget of 918 million shekels ($274.6 million) Wednesday night for infrastructure projects and road rehabilitation to connect West Bank settlements with each other and Israeli cities.

The decision came hours after the Knesset approved a non-binding motion calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Regev said that the budget expansion came in line with “the clear policy of applying sovereignty” on the West Bank, as “billions of dollars were spent for the infrastructure of the settlements” so far.

Smotrich also claimed that the infrastructure projects enabled “actual sovereignty” over the occupied territory and integration of one million illegal settlers into the Israeli population.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East War.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.