20 Israeli occupier families seize land in Jordan Valley

Twenty Israeli occupier families have seized land in the Jordan Valley, eastern occupied West Bank as Israel continues to expand illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory.

The occupiers on Monday moved into the newly established agricultural settlement of Bitron, which was inaugurated ahead of the Jewish New Year on Sept. 12, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

Bitron is one of 13 settlements that Israel’s Security Cabinet approved separating from neighboring illegal settlements last year as a step toward recognizing them as independent settlements.

Channel 12 described Bitron as the first agricultural settlement established by Israel in around 20 years.

On March 23, 2025, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that the Security Cabinet had approved his proposal to separate 13 settlements in the West Bank, including Bitron, from neighboring settlements.

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“Another step toward normalizing settlement,” Smotrich said at the time, adding that the 13 new settlements would be recognized as independent settlements.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the decision increased the number of settlements recognized by Israel from 127 to 140 and demonstrated that the sites were not merely neighborhoods of existing settlements.

Channel 12 said the establishment of Bitron is part of an Israeli project launched after the events of Oct. 7, 2023, aimed at establishing and strengthening illegal settlements along what it considers its eastern border.

According to figures released by the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission in March 2025, 136 agricultural and pastoral outposts, mostly concentrated in the Jordan Valley and eastern slopes of the West Bank, control more than 48,000 hectares (118,600 acres) of land.

The area is around three times the total built-up area of existing Israeli settlements, according to the commission.

The UN considers Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal under international law and has repeatedly warned that their expansion undermines the prospects for a two-state solution.

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