JERUSALEM, May 29: Israel announced on Thursday that it will establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorization
The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state, and most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict
In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip, but current government figures have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population to be resettled elsewhere through voluntary emigration.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 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.
The Israeli military recently located and destroyed an attack tunnel in southern Gaza, found in a self-declared security zone, possibly referring to the now mostly evacuated southern city of Rafah.
The tunnel had several exits, some rigged with explosives, and militants emerged from one of the shafts during the operation and were killed.
Hamas built hundreds of kilometers of tunnels beneath Gaza in the years leading up to the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. (AP)
