Israel's government is pressing ahead with plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank , in a further attempt to entrench occupation and eliminate prospects for a future Palestinian state.
After re-establishing the settlements of Homesh and Sanur, which were removed under Israel's 2005 unilateral disengagement plan, Israeli news site Ynet reported on Thursday that authorities were now expected to restore the settlement of Ganim in the northern West Bank this summer.
Ganim was one of four settlements in the area dismantled in 2005.
According to the report, the first phase will see a group of families linked to the Bnei David religious-military preparatory institute move into the site.
The institute, based in the Eli settlement, is associated with the religious Zionist movement and trains young Israelis for leadership roles in the military and public life.
Plans for Ganim were reportedly approved by Israel's security cabinet in December 2025 following a push led by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz. In recent weeks, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan toured the site with Bnei David leaders, after which a decision was made to establish the first settlement nucleus there.
Rabbi Yehuda Sadan, head of the Bnei David yeshiva in Eli, said during the visit that "within months a new Jewish community would rise in Ganim", as well as in Kedim, another settlement evacuated in 2005.
"We want there to be a community here based on the Torah," he said. "We have a vision to build a place for Torah and a place for settlement, and the two strengthen one another."
Dagan said the northern West Bank, referred to by Israel as "northern Samaria", would be "transformed".
"We are working so that the settler population in Samaria will be twenty times larger. Not as a metaphor, but in practice," he said.
The move marks another stage in the illegal settlement drive pursued by Israel's current government in 2026.
According to Ynet , the government has so far approved more than 100 settlements or outposts in different areas of the West Bank, some retroactively legalised and many entirely new.
This is in addition to around 170 settler farms already spread across the occupied territory.
Settlement leaders are reportedly racing to establish as many sites as possible before Israel's next elections, expected in late October, in case a future government changes course.
Last Sunday, Israeli officials held an inauguration ceremony for the re-established Sanur settlement after the first settler families arrived. Ministers and members of parliament attended, including Smotrich.
"We have an opportunity to make a historic correction, to kill the idea of a Palestinian state, and to return to Sanur. This is a holiday for settlement," Katz said at the event.
Earlier this month, Israeli media reported that Israel’s security cabinet quietly approved 34 new settlements during the war with Iran, described as a record number passed in a single session.
Some of the sites are located inside Palestinian population enclaves in the northern West Bank, while others are in remote areas rarely reached even by the Israeli army.
Israeli Channel i24 reported that the cabinet had kept the approvals "secret" partly to avoid US pressure during the war.
The decision also included an unprecedented clause allowing electricity and water infrastructure to be built for settlements before the land's legal status was finalised under Israeli law.
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law by the UN, ICJ, EU, and most states, stemming from Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilians into occupied territory
Israeli rights group Yesh Din condemned the approvals, calling them a step toward ethnic cleansing.
"While we were running to shelters, cabinet ministers had something more urgent to do: establish dozens of new settlements in the West Bank," the group said in a statement.
It accused the government of advancing Smotrich's plan to confine Palestinians into small, crowded enclaves while surrounding major Palestinian cities such as Jenin with new Israeli settlements.