Israeli settlements in West Bank growing at highest level since 2017: UN report

UNITED NATIONS: The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking such data, according to a report by the United Nations secretary-general seen by AFP on Friday.
In 2025, “plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, compared with some 26,170 in 2024,” the report said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned what he called the “relentless” expansion in a statement accompanying the report, saying it “continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State.”