Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken “secretly” in early April.

“The security cabinet secretly decided to establish 34 new settlements,” Peace Now said in a statement released late on Thursday.

The 34 settlements come on top of 68 others already approved since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government came to power in 2022.

The decision has not been officially published by any government body, and the defence ministry, in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank, declined to respond to AFP’s questions.

“We are not addressing this issue,” a spokesperson for the ministry told AFP.

According to news channel i24News, 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision.

The remaining 24 are yet to be built. All settlements are illegal under international law.

News website Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during the security cabinet meeting that took place on April 1 that the army could “collapse” because of increasing demands on its manpower.

That included the legalisation of dozens of outposts, granting them official settlement status and therefore protection from Israeli troops.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live there in settlements, among some three million Palestinians.

Settlement expansion has been a policy under successive Israeli governments since 1967, but has accelerated significantly under the current Netanyahu-led coalition, widely regarded as one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

Rights groups say approvals of new settlements, land seizures and settler violence have further increased since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.