ISRAEL’S Cabinet approved today 19 new illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

It brings the number of new settlements approved by the current administration to 69, taking the total to 210 — a rise of almost 50 per cent, according to the dissident group Peace Now. Israel’s aggressive colonisation of the West Bank forces Palestinians off their land and is designed to deny the possibility of a Palestinian state.

Two of the new settlements had previously been evacuated during a 2005 disengagement plan, according to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Israeli troops also shelled a school being used to host a wedding in Gaza on Friday, killing at least six Palestinians including a five-month-old baby. The Israeli military said its soldiers had identified “suspicious individuals” and fired, and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals.”

Another Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza yesterday, as were two in Jericho in the West Bank, while Israel also bombed Lebanon over the weekend and set up new military checkpoints in the Quneitra area of Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Israel’s constant violations of the ceasefire — over 400 have been killed by its military in Gaza since the truce was agreed on October 10 — made proceeding with phase 2 of the plan, as urged by the United States, “incredibly difficult.”

Mr Fidan said he had raised this in talks in Miami hosted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, besides insisting that Gaza be ruled by Gazans and not territorially divided, conditions apparently at odds with US President Donald Trump’s plans for the strip.