Israel approves nearly 5,300 settler homes in West Bank in ‘biggest land appropriation in 30 years’

Bezalel Smotrich. Photo: Getty

Tia Goldenberg and Kareem Chehayeb

An Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group says the government has approved plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank.

It is the latest move by Israel's hard-line government to beef up the settlements as part of a strategy to cement Israel's control over the West Bank and prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state.