Recent Updates: Israel Approves Additional Settlements in the West Bank amid Gaza Airstrikes Resulting in 13 Deaths

On Thursday, Israel made an announcement regarding the establishment of 22 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including the legalization of existing outposts that were previously unauthorized by the government.

Additionally, Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have resulted in the deaths of at least 13 individuals according to local health officials. Palestinians in Gaza have been facing increased desperation for food due to nearly three months of Israeli border closures.

The West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem were seized by Israel during the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians aspire to have all three regions as part of their future state. The majority of the global community considers these settlements as unlawful and a hindrance to resolving the long-standing conflict.

In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip, but leading figures in the current government have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population of the territory to be resettled elsewhere through what they describe as voluntary emigration.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.

Here’s the latest:

Israeli newborn dies after mother was killed in West Bank attack

An Israeli baby who was delivered after his mother was fatally shot in an attack in the West Bank has died.

A Palestinian militant opened fire on Tzeela Gez’ car as her husband drove her through the Israeli-occupied West Bank on May 14. The couple was heading to the hospital to give birth. She later died from her wounds, but doctors delivered the baby by emergency cesarean section.

Hamas praised the attack but did not claim it. The military announced days later that its forces had killed the suspected attacker.

“It is with great sadness and pain that we learned this morning of the death of baby Ravid Chaim, son of Tzeela and Hananel Gez,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “There are no words that can offer consolation for the murder of a newborn baby along with his mother.”