Israel’s security cabinet approves measures to strengthen control over West Bank

Israel's cabinet approved measures to enhance control over the West Bank, prompting international condemnation and concerns over settlement expansion.

Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday (February 8, 2026) approved measures that aim to deepen Israeli control over the occupied West Bank and weaken the already limited powers of the Palestinian Authority.

The office of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a statement announced the decisions that would make it easier for Jewish settlers to force Palestinians to give up land, adding that “we will continue to bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” Yonatan Mizrachi, a researcher with the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now, called the decision “very significant”. He said the decision still requires approval by Israel’s top commander for the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a statement, called the decision “dangerous” and an “open Israeli attempt to legalise settlement expansion” and land confiscation. He called for the United States and the U.N. Security Council to intervene immediately.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the decision, which it said was “aimed at imposing illegal Israeli sovereignty” and entrenching settlements.

The measures include cancelling a prohibition on sales of West Bank land to Israeli Jews, declassifying West Bank land registry records to ease land acquisition, transferring construction planning at religious and other sensitive sites in the volatile city of Hebron to Israeli authorities, and allowing Israeli enforcement of environmental and archaeological matters in Palestinian-administered areas.

The measures also would revive a committee that would allow the state of Israel to make “proactive” land purchases in the territory — “a step intended to guarantee land reserves for settlement for generations to come.”