The Israeli government has allocated an additional $274 million for settlement projects in the West Bank, hours after the Knesset approved a proposal to annex the occupied territory, local media reported today.
According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved an additional budget of 918 million shekels ($274.6 million) on Wednesday night for infrastructure projects and road reconstruction to connect West Bank settlements to each other and to Israeli cities.
The decision came hours after the Knesset approved a non-binding proposal calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
Regev said the budget expansion was in line with a “clear policy of applying sovereignty” in the West Bank, as “billions of dollars have been spent on settlement infrastructure” so far.
Smotrich also claimed that the infrastructure projects have enabled “real sovereignty” over the occupied territory and the integration of a million illegal settlers into the Israeli population.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East War.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and ordered the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Since the start of the Gaza Strip war in October 2023, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, AA writes.
