NABLUS, May 9, 2026 (WAFA) – The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Colonization said Israeli occupation authorities have allocated one billion shekels for the construction of colonial bypass roads on Palestinian-owned lands in the occupied West Bank to serve colonial expansion projects.
In its weekly settlement report, issued on Saturday and covering the period between May 2 and 8, the bureau said that extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced the approval of an additional allocation estimated at 1.075 billion shekels for the construction of new roads serving colonies as part of additional allocations from the Ministry of Finance budget for the years 2026 to 2028.
The report added that this comes in addition to seven billion shekels previously allocated by the Israeli occupation government for roads serving colonies in the West Bank. The new allocation represents approximately 30 percent of the roads budget, as the government has invested huge sums in recent years in developing bypass roads in the West Bank to facilitate the construction of new colonies and the expansion of existing ones.
It noted that Smotrich had announced during an internal conference of the Religious Zionism party in June 2024 that he had allocated seven billion Israeli shekels over five years for roads serving colonies.
According to the report, the allocation amounts to approximately 1.4 billion Israeli shekels annually. By comparison, the budget for intercity roads inside the 1948 territories over the past four years totaled around 4.5 billion Israeli shekels annually, according to data on the implementation of intercity roads budgets. This means that the Israeli occupation government allocated around 30 percent of the intercity roads budget inside the 1948 territories to colonies inhabited by only 3 percent of Israelis.
The bureau recalled that the Israeli occupation government had, over recent years, constructed more than 952 kilometers of bypass roads, which have contributed to curbing the development of Palestinian localities in the West Bank.
It pointed out that, alongside the new bypass roads serving as a key tool of the colonial project, the so-called “Higher Planning Council” of the Israeli occupation army is reviewing plans for the construction of 643 colonial units in several colonies built on West Bank lands.
The report stressed that the accelerating pace of planning discussions and rapid approvals reflects the occupation government’s determination to resume colonial activities at a rapid pace in the northern West Bank, including in areas that have not witnessed colonial presence for more than two decades.
According to the weekly settlement report, the current year has marked a decisive turning point in the colonial movement. Since the formation of the current Israeli occupation government, more than 100 colonies, colonial outposts, and pastoral outposts have been approved across the West Bank.
The report also noted that, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, the Israeli cabinet approved during a secret meeting the establishment of 34 additional colonies. Details of the meeting were kept highly confidential over fears of international pressure that could obstruct the move.
T.R.
