Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the number of Israeli settlements formally recognised in the occupied West Bank has climbed to 178 from 128 since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in December 2022, a rise of roughly 40 percent. The television report, aired on 5 July, describes what it calls an “unprecedented” expansion that includes at least 50 newly announced outposts and approvals for 41,709 settler housing units over the past two and a half years. The surge has been accompanied by extensive demolition of Palestinian homes, a record pace of construction of strategic roads linking settlements, and large areas—about 787 square kilometres—being designated for grazing farms that effectively extend Israeli control. Channel 12 counted 214 un authorised outposts by the end of 2024, 66 of them established during the latest Gaza war, and said the settler population grew 38 percent between 2013 and 2023 to roughly 517,000. Political pressure for further expansion is mounting. Two days before the report was broadcast, 14 ministers from Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana signed a letter urging the prime minister to move ahead with the outright annexation of the territory, a step that would formally end prospects for a negotiated two-state solution, according to the channel.