Ramallah, July 25 (Petra) – The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlement on Saturday warned of a growing number of pastoral settlement outposts in Area B of the West Bank with the support and facilitation of the Israeli occupation authorities, in violation of understandings stipulated in the Oslo Accords.
Settlers have established at least 21 settlement outposts in Area B during the past two and a half years, said the Bureau, an official body of the Palestine Liberation Organization that monitors and reports Israeli settlement activities, land seizures, and settler actions in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
Some outposts that the occupation army and government announced they had dismantled remained, or resumed expansion, it said in its weekly report, calling these measures "a smokescreen." The report showed a number of outposts have turned into populated communities with families, while others include services and synagogues, in addition to facilities for visitors to the settlements.
"This reflects a continuous expansion within areas supposedly under Palestinian civil administration under the Oslo Accords," it said.
Outposts established during 2024 remain, and are expanding with the addition of new buildings and residents, which undermines Palestinian civil jurisdiction over these areas and constitutes a violation of one of the fundamental principles of the agreement, it warned.
The report stated that five new outposts were set up east and south of Bethlehem, in addition to others in Ramallah and al-Bireh, Nablus, Hebron, and the South Hebron Hills.
Settlement expansion was accompanied by construction of new roads, appropriation of water resources, an expansion of grazing activities, and displacement of Palestinian Bedouin and pastoral communities, said the report.
The Bureau noted that Israel's current policy marked a shift from previous years, when the Civil Administration would demolish buildings in Area B only after legal procedures were completed. The current phase, however, is characterized by continued settlement expansion, coupled with demolitions and forced displacement targeting Palestinian communities.
The report also cited UN data pointing to a 45 percent surge in settler attacks in the first half of 2026 from the same period in 2025, with more than 1,020 attacks documented since the start of the year, compared to 757 attacks during the first six months of the previous year.
//Petra//SS
