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Toronto Sun
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Israel authorizes more Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank
Published May 29, 2025 • 3 minute read This picture shows houses in the Israeli settlement of Psagot in the occupied West Bank, located on Tawil hill adjacent to the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh, on May 29, 2025. Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR / AFP via Getty Images JERUSALEM — Israel said Thursday it would establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict. Defence Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision 'strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria,' using the biblical term for the West Bank, 'anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.' He added it was also 'a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.' Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with apartment blocks, shopping malls, factories and public parks. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres. The settlers have Israeli citizenship. Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years — long before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza — confining Palestinians to smaller and smaller areas of the West Bank and making the prospect of establishing a viable, independent state even more remote. During his first term, President Donald Trump's administration broke with decades of U.S. foreign policy by supporting Israel's claims to territory seized by force and taking steps to legitimize the settlements. Former President Joe Biden, like most of his predecessors, opposed the settlements but applied little pressure to Israel to curb their growth. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The top United Nations court ruled last year that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel denounced the non-binding opinion by a 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people. Calls for settlements in war-ravaged Gaza Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but leading figures in the current government have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population of the territory to be resettled elsewhere through what they describe as voluntary emigration. Palestinians view such plans as a blueprint for their forcible expulsion from their homeland, and experts say the plans would likely violate international law. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Israel now controls more than 70% of Gaza, according to Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University, who has examined Israeli-Palestinian land use patterns for decades. The area includes buffer zones along the border with Israel as well as the southern city of Rafah, which is now mostly uninhabited, and other large areas that Israel has ordered to be evacuated. The war began with Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA Tennis Columnists
Newsweek
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
New Videos Show Alleged Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Newly recorded video shows buildings and vehicles ablaze in a West Bank town in what Palestinian residents and Israeli media said was an arson attack by Israeli settlers that left at least eight people wounded just days after a pregnant Israeli woman was shot dead on her way to deliver her baby in hospital. Newsweek has reached out to Israel's Security Agency (ISA) and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), as well as the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian Red Cross Society (PRCS) for comment. Why It Matters The attack highlights mounting violence in the West Bank at the same time as the war in Gaza is intensifying again, fueling deeper divisions and increasingly extremist rhetoric that further imperils prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace or the chance of the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict that is supported by much of the world. Violence is not confined to the region, with two Israeli embassy staff shot dead outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC and President Donald Trump condemned what he called "horrible killings" based on antisemitism. A Palestinian man lifts a national flag as he walks on a road destroyed in Israeli raids at the entrance of the Tulkarm refugee camp May 19, 2025, during the visit to Tulkarm city of... A Palestinian man lifts a national flag as he walks on a road destroyed in Israeli raids at the entrance of the Tulkarm refugee camp May 19, 2025, during the visit to Tulkarm city of a European Union diplomatic delegation (not pictured) amid an ongoing Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank. More ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images What To Know Video footage circulating on social media, as well as some published by Al-Jazeera, showed houses and cars ablaze, as screams were heard in the background. Residents broadcast urgent calls for help through mosque loudspeakers in efforts to contain the fires, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. 🚨BREAKING: Israeli settlers are now setting more homes on fire in the village of Bruqin, West Bank, in a violent attack. Residents are pleading for help, with many families trapped inside their burning homes. Six homes and five cars have been burned so far—and it's not over. — Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 22, 2025 About 40 Israeli settlers raided the West Bank village of Bruqin, torching five vehicles and two gardens, with the group fleeing as Israeli forces arrived, according to Israeli website Yedioth Ahronoth. The Israeli police is also investigating a separate incident where settlers torched a mosque and a vehicle near Usarin and Aqraba, south of Nablus, leaving graffiti reading "Am Israel Chai" (The People of Israel Live) and "Jewish blood is not worthless," it reported. There have been no reports of arrests in both attacks. חברה מתוקנת אינה שורפת כפרים כתחביב. הלילה. ברוקין, بروقين, נפת סלפית. עשרות טרוריסטים יהודים פלשו לכפר והציתו בתים ורכבים פלסטינים. הצבא הביט מהצד. אין מעצרים. תחביבם אמונתם. שגרת כיבוש. — מסתכלים לכיבוש בעיניים (@Mistaclim) May 23, 2025 Earlier this week, Israeli forces said they killed a Hamas operative in the town of Bruqin identified as the man who shot an Israeli woman and her husband while on their to deliver her baby—the mother later dying at hospital, according to The Times of Israel. In January, IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth condemned extremist settlers following an attack on the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq in the West Bank's Efraim region, saying violent disturbances will not be tolerated and that a probe had been launched, according to The Jerusalem Post. The West Bank hosts around three million Palestinians and some 500,000 Jewish settlers in over 100 settlements deemed illegal under international law. These settlements are seen a major obstacle to peace and a central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What People Are Saying Palestinian Foreign Ministry on X: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs renews its call for deterrent international action to stop the organized terrorist attacks by #settler gangs. The crimes committed by settlers in Bruqin and other areas are organized and planned with the aim of displacing our people." Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the Times of Israel: "Upon receiving the report, troops were dispatched to the scene. The suspects fled the area before the troops arrived and the incident is under further investigation." What Happens Next Some Palestinian families told media channels they would leave the area fearing more violence could threaten their lives.
