Israeli ministers celebrate reestablishment of settlement in West Bank

By Pesha Magid

SA-NUR, West Bank, April 20 (Reuters) – A Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank received demolition orders for 15 shops on Monday, a day after Israeli ministers celebrated the reestablishment of a settlement on a neighbouring hill.

Israel’s ruling far-right coalition has supported a rapid expansion of settlements and Palestinians have received thousands of demolition orders since the government took power, according to U.N. data.

The release of the latest order was for Al-Fandaqumiya, according to a local official.

It comes after Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar gathered on Sunday to celebrate the reestablishment of a settlement in neighbouring Sa-Nur.

Sa-Nur settlement, in the northern West Bank, was one of 19 settlements evacuated under a 2005 disengagement plan, which also included Israel’s withdrawal of settlers from Gaza – a move that remains a source of bitterness for Israel’s right.

ACCESS TO LAND

Palestinians have long hoped that the West Bank would form the heart of a future state, but settlement expansion has fragmented the territory.

Most of the world considers Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

Israel has approved 102 new settlements under the current government, compared with a total of 127 settlements existing before it was elected, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now.

Refaat Qaruriya, the head of the village council for the nearby Al-Fandaqumiya, said the demolition orders gave shopkeepers a month’s notice. He added Sa-Nur would make life difficult for village residents, who worried they would no longer be able to access their lands.

The Israeli military said that demolition orders were because the stores were constructed without permits, and the timing was unrelated to Sa-Nur.

Palestinians say such permits are virtually impossible for them to obtain.

“This development (in Sa-Nur) raises serious concerns regarding further escalation, restrictions on Palestinian access to land, and the deepening of a de facto annexation reality,” Amir Daoud, a Palestinian Authority official, said in a statement to Reuters.

Smotrich has called for the annexation of the West Bank, and said he wants the “maximum territory and minimum (Palestinian) population” to be brought under Israeli sovereignty.

Smotrich also called at Sunday’s ceremony for Israel to settle “all of Gaza”, as well as the areas it occupies in Lebanon and Syria.

Israel is set to hold an election by the end of October. Katz’s Likud party and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism faction have both been sliding in the polls and both draw support from settlers.

“It’s clear that the whole land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, period. About what to do with the Arabs, I don’t have an answer to what to do with them – the land belongs to us,” said Meir Goldmintz, a settler and new resident of Sa-Nur.

Since the start of 2026, at least 580 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded, with at least 1,800 people displaced as a result of violence and access restrictions, according to U.N. figures.

Human Rights Watch has described the intensifying violence and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank as ethnic cleansing enabled by the Israeli state, a charge Israel rejects.

Israeli indictments of settler violence are rare, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

(Reporting by Pesha Magid, Ali Sawafta, and Omri Taasan; Editing by Alison Williams)