TL:DR – Israeli Security Cabinet Announces New Measures to Facilitate Settlements
• Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that Israel is responsible for ongoing violence in the West Bank, according to Euronews on 9 February 2026.
• Olmert condemned Israeli settlers’ actions against Palestinians, describing them as “ethnic cleansing”.
• The UN reported that 240 Palestinians, including 55 children, were killed in the West Bank in 2025.
• Israeli authorities evicted two Palestinian families from Silwan, East Jerusalem, for a settler organisation.
• The Israeli security cabinet announced new measures to facilitate land ownership for settlers in the West Bank.
Israeli policy in West Bank ‘close to ethnic cleansing’, says Ehud Olmert
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel has stated that Israel is accountable for the escalating violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers have been attacking and displacing Palestinians. During an interview with Euronews on 9 February 2026, Olmert asserted, “No one can blame anyone else but the Israelis that live in the West Bank and the government that supports them, who are perpetrating the hostilities inhuman against non-involved Palestinians.” He described the situation as nearing “an attempt to make ethnic cleansing” and emphasised the need to condemn these actions.
The ongoing violence is particularly significant following the increase in settler activities since Hamas’s major attack on Israeli territory from Gaza on 7 October 2023. According to reports, 240 Palestinians, including 55 children, were killed in the West Bank in 2025, with Israeli forces responsible for the majority of these deaths, as stated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The report also noted that over 830 Palestinians were injured due to settler attacks, averaging two injuries per day.
Israeli Security Cabinet Implements New Land Registration Measures
The Israeli security cabinet has introduced new measures aimed at significantly altering land registration and ownership procedures in the West Bank. Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that these decisions would “dramatically” facilitate the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, stating, “We will continue to bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
In addition, Israeli authorities forcibly evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, facilitating actions in favour of an Israeli settler organisation.
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