RAMALLAH, Palestine 

Illegal Israeli settlers established a new outpost on Monday east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to a local nongovernmental organization. 

“A group of extremist settlers set up tents and placed barbed wire over land belonging to the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah,” Hassan Mleihat, the general supervisor of the local Al-Baidar Organization for Defending Bedouin Rights, told a press conference.

He pointed out that this move was aimed at establishing a new settlement outpost.

“This area has seen rising conflicts between illegal settlers and Palestinians over land, and the new outpost is part of the occupation government's plans to seize more land for settlement expansion,” Mleihat added.

Estimates indicate that around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal under international law.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip that killed nearly 38,600 people after an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

At least 574 Palestinians, including at least 136 children, have since been killed and nearly 5,350 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Mohammad Sio.