RAMALLAH, Palestine / ANKARA

Israel began to build a new settlement in the West Bank amid military escalation in the occupied territory, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday.

The Nahal Hilts settlement is being built on Palestinian land in the village of Battir in Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, said Moayad Shaaban, who heads the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

“Israel approved the construction of the new settlement in response to global recognition of the Palestinian state last year,” he added in a statement.

In response to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Spain, Ireland, and Norway recognized the Palestinian state in May last year, a move that infuriated Tel Aviv.

Shaaban said the new Israeli settlement practically separates the Bethlehem area from Jerusalem.

“It is part of Israel’s gradual plan for Greater Jerusalem, which threatens the entire geographical continuity between the northern and southern West Bank,” he added.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The settlement building came as the Israeli army escalated its onslaught on Palestinian areas in the West Bank, where more than 30 Palestinians have been killed and thousands displaced by Israeli raids in the occupied territory since Jan. 21.

The Israeli escalation follows a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza on Jan. 19, after more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment which has killed nearly 48,200 Palestinians and devastated the enclave.

Since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 910 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.