In 2025, the Israeli government accelerated its settlement project in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) by advancing plans and policies that will deepen territorial transformation unprecedentedly. These developments suggest an acceleration of settlement activity and moves towards annexation, as well as a progressive institutionalisation of Israeli civilian governance mechanisms across the oPt, endangering the prospects for a two-state solution.
The most acute expression of this acceleration was the government’s official approval of plans to establish 54 new official settlements in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem); the highest number ever recorded in a single year. In parallel, 86 new outposts were erected throughout the year at an average rate of one to two per week.
This was further reinforced by unprecedented levels of planning and construction. According to Peace Now, 27,941 housing units (HU) were advanced for submission or final authorisation by the Higher Planning Council in 2025 for settlements in the occupied West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem). In occupied East Jerusalem, a further record 35,370 HU across 56 plans were advanced according to data from the Jerusalem-based civil society organisation Ir Amim, nearly double the level of 2024 (18,988 HU). Taken together, 63,311 HU were advanced through planning across the oPt in 2025, the highest annual total ever recorded. The plans have not yet been implemented.
The final approval in August 2025 and subsequent tendering in December 2025 of plans to build 3,401 HU in the E1 area of the West Bank (east of Jerusalem neighbouring the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim), represents one of the most strategically consequential settlement decisions in decades as it will bisect the West Bank, sever it from East Jerusalem, and displace thousands of Palestinians in the area. Together with the advancement of other new settlement plans that will, if implemented, cut East Jerusalem almost entirely from the West Bank, damaging to the prospects of East Jerusalem serving as the future capital of a Palestinian state.
The expansion of settlements was accompanied by increasedlevels of settler violence. UN OCHA documented 1,828 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage across approximately 280 communities in 2025, compared to 1,420 in 2024 and 1,189 in 2023. This is the highest annual total since monitoring began in 2006. Nine Palestinians were killed by settlers and 838 were injured — an average of two per day.
The EU has repeatedly called on Israel not to proceed with plans under its settlement policy and to halt all settlement activities. It remains the EU's firm position that settlements are illegal under international law. The settlement developments advanced in 2025 further undermine the prospects of a viable two-state solution.
