The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned Israel’s approval of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision violates international law. Israeli rights group Peace Now reported late on Thursday that the government had taken the decision “secretly” in early April. The decision was also reported widely by Israeli media outlets.
The Palestinian Presidency’s office condemned the plan as a “flagrant violation of international law”. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government. The OIC’s general secretariat said in a statement on Friday that Israel, “the occupying power, has no sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and that all its measures aimed at changing the geographic and demographic reality there are null and void under international law”.
The 34 settlements approved on Thursday come on top of 68 approved since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government came to power in 2022. The OIC general secretariat also “warned of the gravity of the escalation of settlement policies, land confiscation, settler terrorism and attempts to annex and impose so-called Israeli sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, stressing that this aims to undermine the two-state solution and violate the rights of the Palestinian people“. The #OIC Condemns Israeli Occupation's Approval of 34 New Settlements in the #WestBank. #Palestine #Israel pic.twitter.com/PDNrVLmdCq Turkiye also criticised Israel’s approval of the new settlements, calling it a “serious violation of international law and UN resolutions”.
Anouar el Anouni, the European Union’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the approval of the new settlements. Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the decision and said in a post on X that the settlements were a “flagrant violation of international law and undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region.” “We call on the Government of Israel to reverse them immediately and to respect its international obligations,” the ministry said. Sweden condemns the recent Israeli decision to establish over 30 new settlements in the West Bank.
The settlements are a flagrant violation of international law and undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region. We call on the Government of Israel to reverse… — Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (@SweMFA) April 10, 2026 Israel’s Channel 24 reported that the security cabinet “secretly” approved the establishment of these new settlements during a recent session. News website Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during the security cabinet meeting on April 1 that the army could “collapse” because of increasing demands on its manpower.
That included the legalisation of dozens of outposts, granting them official settlement status and therefore, protection from Israeli troops. The approved sites include locations within Palestinian neighbourhoods in the northern West Bank and remote areas rarely reached by Israeli forces, Channel 24 said, adding that 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision. The remaining 24 are yet to be built.
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