Israeli settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has reached unprecedented levels, with an animated map charting the growth of communities, outposts and settler attacks on Palestinian land.
The settlement network has expanded from scattered hilltop outposts into a system of towns, roads and highways linking the occupied territories to Israel. The number and scale of settlements increased sharply after Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, says there are at least 148 settlements in the occupied West Bank and 15 in occupied East Jerusalem. Together, they are home to about 750,000 Israeli settlers, roughly 10 per cent of Israel’s Jewish population.
Israeli settlement expansion and the growth of outposts
By 2024, the 163 settlements had a combined population of 744,700: 511,100 in the West Bank and 233,600 in East Jerusalem. More than 400 outposts also existed, although they are not officially counted and can later be legalised or absorbed into established settlements.
Nearly 28,000 housing units were advanced within existing West Bank settlements in 2025 alone. That represented substantially more growth than the creation of new settlements or outposts.
Settlements are considered illegal under international law because the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied territory. The United Nations Security Council, the International Court of Justice and the International Committee of the Red Cross have affirmed that position, most recently in the ICJ’s advisory opinion of July 2024.
Under Israeli law, settlements are authorised, planned, funded and built with government approval. Outposts are smaller communities established without formal authorisation, although many are subsequently granted legal status or incorporated into existing settlements.
The largest communities include Modi’in Illit, with 89,301 residents, Beitar Illit, with 70,251, and Pisgat Ze’ev, with 48,419. Some have developed into urban centres with mayors, schools, shopping centres, medical facilities and universities.
They are connected by a dense network of roads, including bypass routes that cut through Palestinian land. Checkpoints and roadblocks restrict movement for Palestinians living alongside the settlements and contribute to the fragmentation of their communities.
The proposed expansion of Maale Adumim in the E1 area east of Jerusalem is seen as particularly significant because it would separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. In August 2025, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved more than 3,000 homes for the project, which had been frozen for decades.
Mr Smotrich said the move would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”. Nearly 30 governments and the European Commission condemned the decision as “unacceptable and a violation of international law”.
Settler attacks reach record levels
The expansion of settlements has coincided with a sharp rise in attacks by Israeli settlers. Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs records 1,836 attacks causing casualties or property damage in 2025, more than twice the 852 recorded in 2022.
That amounted to an average of about five attacks a day. Since October 7 2023, a total of 5,131 attacks have been recorded, including 1,418 between January and July 2026.
Settlers include people attracted by cheaper rents, subsidised mortgages, discounted land and government incentives. Others are religious nationalists who believe the land was promised to them by God, including the so-called hilltop youth, who have been associated with establishing outposts and attacking Palestinian communities.
Experts and United Nations officials have increasingly described such incidents as pogroms, referring to organised and often state-backed violence against a targeted minority. Israeli military officers have also used the term after earlier incidents, including the 2023 attack on Huwara.
The creation of new outposts and the violence carried out by settlers are separate elements of settlement activity. Together, they show expansion taking place through government-backed construction and new activity on the ground.
