Bezalel Smotrich announced the establishment of 22 settlements in the West Bank. Some are existing outposts that the Israeli government considered illegal but will now authorize. Others will be

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for their hoped-for future state - in the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

Israel approved a massive expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank this week in a move described as a continuation of de facto annexation of the territory.