Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the move is aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. It comes days after the UN said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank had reached its highest level since at least 2017.

Israel’s security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move the country’s far-right finance minister said on Sunday, January 21, was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. The decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to a statement from the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The latest approvals come days after the United Nations said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank – all of which are considered illegal under international law – had reached its highest level since at least 2017.

“The proposal by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz to declare and formalise 19 new settlements in Judea and Samaria has been approved by the cabinet,” the statement said, without specifying when the decision was taken. Smotrich is a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself.

“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” he said in the statement. “We will continue to develop, build, and settle the land of our ancestral heritage, with faith in the justice of our path.”