• Britain, Jordan condemn ‘illegal, unilateral actions’
• Hamas says Tel Aviv is ‘accelerating steps to Judaise Palestinian land’
• 44 more killed in strikes on Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel announced on Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, putting further strain on relations with the international community already taxed by the war in Gaza.

Both Britain and neighbouring Jordan slammed the move, with London calling it a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law, and are seen as one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The decision to establish more, taken by the country’s security cabinet, was announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who is in charge of managing the communities.

“We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the southern and northern West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. “Next step: sovereignty!” he added.

Not all the 22 settlements are new, however. Some are existing outposts, while others are neighbourhoods of settlements that will become independent communities, according to the left-wing Israeli NGO Peace Now.

In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of “accelerating steps to Judaise Palestinian land within a clear annexation project”.

“This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions,” said the Palestinian group, which rules Gaza.

Western ally Jordan also condemned the move as illegal, and said it “undermines prospects for peace by entrenching the occupation”.

On Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a “once-in-a-generation decision”, and said it “includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel’s eastern backbone”.

The party also published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory.

44 Palestinians killed

Meanwhile, at least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.

After a more than two-month blockade, aid has finally begun to trickle back into Gaza, but the humanitarian situation remains dire after 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.

Gaza civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP that “44 people have been killed in Israeli raids”, including 23 in a strike on home in Al-Bureij.

“Two people were killed and several injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire this morning near the American aid centre in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip,” he added.

The centre, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new system for distributing aid that Israel says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

“What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us,” said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday. “We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.”

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported deaths in Al-Bureij and near the aid centre.

In a telephone call on Thursday with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel’s “systematic starvation tactics have crossed all moral and legal boundaries”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday slammed Israeli attacks on Gaza as “collective punishment of the civilian population”, in some of Moscow’s strongest criticism of Israel as it steps up its offensive. “What is happening in Gaza is incomprehensible and indescribable,” Lavrov said at a regional forum.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2025