Shtayyeh: Settler population in West Bank and Jerusalem hits 881,000

Former Palestinian Prime Minister and Chairman of the Palestinian Research Centre, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said that Israel has not stopped at its military offensive on the Gaza Strip, but has continued to expand its settlement project, with the number of settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem now close to 881,000.

He made the remarks during the opening of the Palestinian Research Centre’s annual conference, titled the Palestinian national strategy in a changing region.

In his opening speech, Shtayyeh described the situation in Palestine as a continuing war of destruction and forced displacement, with the violence spreading beyond Gaza to the West Bank and Jerusalem amid near-total occupation, mass arrests, and a sharp decline in humanitarian conditions. He criticised what he called international double standards, saying that the world often punishes individual settlers while ignoring the broader settlement project, providing Israel with political and moral cover instead of enforcing international law.

On Sunday, Israel approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total approved in the past three years to 69, according to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said the move was intended to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. The decision has been widely condemned by the UN and several countries as illegal under international law.