Israel says it will legalise nine West Bank settlements

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/GAZA CITY — Israel's security cabinet announced on Sunday that it would legalise nine settlements in the occupied West Bank following a series of attacks in East Jerusalem, including one that killed three Israelis.

"In response to the murderous terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, the security Cabinet decided unanimously to authorise nine communities in Judea and Samaria," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that included the name Israel uses for the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

"These communities have existed for many years; some have existed for decades," it said.

These so-called "wild" settlements were built without authorisation from the Israeli government.

The statement said that a committee will be convened in the coming days to approve the construction of new settlement units in existing communities in Judea and Samaria.

It said the "security Cabinet made a series of additional decisions in the framework of the determined fight against terrorism" including strengthening security forces in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said earlier Sunday during a meeting of his government he wanted to "strengthen settlements", which are illegal under international law.

More than 475,000 Israelis reside in settlements in the West Bank, where 2.8 million Palestinians live.

Netanyahu also announced that his government wanted to submit legislation to the Knesset [parliament] this week to revoke the Israeli nationality of "terrorists".

The measures apply to Arab Israelis as well as to Palestinians with resident status in East Jerusalem, part of the city occupied by Israel.

This announcement comes amid an outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of at least 46 Palestinians, according to an AFP count based on official Palestinian sources.

Meanwhile, Israel struck a Hamas base in Gaza on Monday in response to a rocket fired from the enclave, while one Palestinian died during what the army alleged a West Bank raid targeting suspects.

The latest unrest comes amid a significance escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence, with dozens killed in recent weeks.

The Palestinian health ministry said Amir Ihab Bustami, 21, was killed in a pre-dawn Israeli army raid in Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank, the scene of repeated clashes over the past year.

Separately, in Gaza, the occupation army said it had struck before dawn “an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation”.

Ayman Shamalakh, a gas station owner in the coastal territory, told AFP the strikes hit a nearby events hall, causing glass to shatter in the area, and added that “as for the hall, it was completely destroyed”.

Following the Israeli strikes, air raid sirens sounded in communities near the Gaza border, the military said.