Israel is advancing plans to construct 2,339 illegal colonialist units across the northern, central, and southern regions of the occupied West Bank, a statement issued by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s National Office for the Defense of Land and Resistance of Settlement, revealed.

The report details that 1,352 units are slated for Qalqilia, located in the northern West Bank; 430 units in areas northeast of Ramallah and northwest of occupied East Jerusalem; 407 units in Bethlehem; and 150 units west of Ramallah, in the central part of the territory.

The plan also includes the creation of the so-called “Samaria National Park” in the Palestinian town of Sebastia, north of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, a move widely viewed as part of Israel’s broader strategy to annex and rebrand Palestinian heritage sites.

This expansion comes despite the International Court of Justice’s ruling, which declared that Israel’s presence in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law, and called for an end to settlement activity and annexation measures.

In a conclusive and unambiguous decision, the International Court of Justice declared in a non-binding ruling, in July 2024, that Israel’s 56-year long rule in “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” is illegal, and that it is obligated to bring its presence in that territory to an end “as rapidly as possible.”

In its decision, the ICJ said it determined Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank violates international law, and that Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank — along with East Jerusalem, which was formally annexed and designated as sovereign Israeli territory in 1980 — due to some of the apparently permanent aspects of Israeli rule there.

The legal consequences of its findings, the court ruled, were that Israel must end its control of these areas, cease new settlement activity, “repeal all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation” — including those which it said, “discriminate against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” — and provide reparations for any damage caused by its “wrongful acts.”

The decision also comes amidst dangerously escalating attacks against the Palestinians, their homes and lands across the occupied West Bank.

On Friday, Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers carried out numerous attacks against Palestinians, their homes, and their lands across several areas of the occupied West Bank.

The colonizers killed two Palestinians, including a Palestinian-American, while many others were wounded, and several properties sustained damage in Sinjil town, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Israeli soldiers also abducted a child and a young man in Salfit, in the central West Bank.

Early Friday morning, at least 30 Palestinian families were forcibly displaced from the Arab al-Mleihat Bedouin community, situated at the end of the Mu’arrajat road northwest of Jericho, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.

All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory.”

Since the beginning of this year, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have killed 177 Palestinians, including 31 children and 8 women.

60 Palestinians were killed in Jenin, 32 in Nablus, 26 in Tubas, 17 in Tulkarem, 12 in Hebron, 11 in Ramallah, 6 in Bethlehem, 4 in Qalqilia, 3 in Salfit, 5 in Jerusalem and 1 in Jericho.