ISRAEL’S cabinet has approved a measure to assume full control of land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which covers around 60 per cent of the territory and hosts most of Israel’s illegal settlements.
The decision, pushed by far-right ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, has been condemned by rights groups as a de facto annexation in violation of international law.
Hamas has strongly denounced the Israeli decision as a dangerous escalation aimed at annexation and forced displacement.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Hamas warned that reactivating the so-called ‘land ownership registration process’ effectively nullifies all agreements signed with the Palestinian Authority under the ‘futile Oslo negotiations’.
It characterised the move not as an administrative measure, but as a calculated strategy to impose Israeli sovereignty over more than 60% of the West Bank – facilitated, Hamas said, by the Palestinian Authority’s ‘official silence’ and continued security coordination with Israel, which the group called a ‘dangerous illusion’ used to entrench Israel’s colonial agenda.
Hamas urged all Palestinian factions to escalate national resistance and mobilise efforts to confront what it described as unprecedented threats to the Palestinian cause.
Under the 1995 Oslo Accords, Area C was to be temporarily managed by Israel with an eventual transfer to the Palestinian Authority.
The new resolution nullifies any Palestinian claims to register land and grants Israeli authorities exclusive powers to formalise ownership.
Israeli officials will conduct sweeping land surveys and are expected to reclassify large areas to expand settlement activity.
The order instructs Israeli forces to block Palestinian registration efforts, reject international assistance, and establish an inter-ministerial committee within 60 days to oversee the changes.
The move coincides with a Knesset bill to make land purchases easier for Israeli settlers in occupied territory, including Palestinian-populated areas.
According to Israeli media, the proposed law – titled ‘Ending Discrimination in Land Purchases in Judea and Samaria’ – is designed to facilitate settlement expansion without direct government oversight. It forms part of a wider legislative push by the ruling coalition to annex large parts of the West Bank, timed to coincide with the ongoing war on Gaza.
At the same time, Smotrich’s regulation unit is carrying out assessments that could see privately owned Palestinian land redefined as ‘public’ and absorbed under Israeli control.
Yesh Din called the decision ‘a dangerous step toward realising the messianic vision of the annexationist administration’, warning it breaches international law and threatens the rights of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The United Nations also raised alarm. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric warned the policy risks further ‘legitimising the occupation’, affirming that ‘the West Bank is part of the occupied Palestinian territory’.
