JERUSALEM: Israel has given final approval for 764 housing units to be built in three settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.

Most world powers deem Israel’s settlements — on land it captured in a 1967 war — as illegal and numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

“For us, all the settlements are illegal … and they are contrary to all the resolutions of international legitimacy,” Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Executive Committee, said.

The ultra-nationalist Smotrich, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, said that since the beginning of his term in late 2022, some 51,370 housing units have been approved by the government’s Higher Planning Council in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

Khaled Meshaal, chief of Hamas Abroad, rejects call for surrendering weapons

“We continue the revolution,” Smotrich said in a statement, adding the latest approval of housing units “is part of a clear strategic process of strengthening the settlements and ensuring continuity of life, security, and growth … and genuine concern for the future of the State of Israel.” The units will be spread out between Hashmonaim, just over the Green Line in central Israel, and Givat Zeev and Beitar Illit near Jerusalem.

Israel claims settlements are critical to its security and cites biblical, historical and political connections to the territory.

Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have been on the rise. At least 264 attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians were reported in October, the biggest monthly total since UN officials began tracking such incidents in 2006, according to a UN report.

Hamas leader rejects disarmament

Meanwhile, Khaled Meshaal, the chief of Hamas Abroad, told Al Jazeera surrendering weapons will ‘remove the soul’ from the Palestinian group as ceasefire momentum slips.

Mr Meshaal offered assurances that the group would take measures to curb any future attacks on Israel from the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza, but added that surrendering its weapons would be like “removing the soul” from the group.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic’s Mawazin, Meshaal laid out the group’s positions on key issues amid rising concern that momentum on ceasefire talks may fade as the first phase draws to a conclusion.

Hamas said on Tuesday that the ceasefire cannot move forward if Israel continues its violations of the ceasefire agreement, with authorities saying the truce has been breached at least 738 times since taking effect on October 10.

The leader also told Al Jazeera that Hamas would not accept a non-Palestinian governing authority for Gaza, amid speculation over the makeup of United States President Donald Trump’s so-called “board of peace”, which has been floated as a possible alternative to Hamas’s rule since 2006.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s candidacy to the board had been ruled out, following opposition from several Arab and Muslim states.

Blair is heavily tarnished for his key role in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation and devastation of the US-led war in Iraq, as well as his failed role as Quartet envoy to the Middle East.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2025