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Annexation by the Numbers, 2023 to 2026

A reader who is told "Greater Israel is a conspiracy theory" deserves numbers, not adjectives. This page collects the counts from Israeli monitors, Israeli analysts, American groups, and news outlets. They measure different things, so each is given with what it counts and who counted it. Read together, they describe one direction.

The Israeli monitor: Peace Now's "Annus Mirabilis"​

Peace Now, an Israeli organization that has tracked settlements for decades, published a report with the group Kerem Navot in July 2026. Its title, Annus Mirabilis, is Latin for "year of wonders," a bitter joke about how much changed so fast. It covers 2023 through early 2026 and counts:

  • 185 new outposts, about 130 of them farm outposts and hilltop outposts;
  • 102 new settlements, created either by legalizing outposts or by giving existing neighborhoods independent status;
  • 40,064 housing units advanced;
  • 118 Palestinian shepherding communities and clusters expelled;
  • farm outposts effectively controlling more than 1,070,000 dunams, "approximately 18% of the West Bank," about 750,000 dunams of that under this government (a dunam is a thousand square meters, about a quarter acre);
  • at least 223 kilometers of new roads;
  • 11,520 dunams taken over by cultivation and 25,959 dunams declared "state land."

Its conclusion: the government "has advanced de facto annexation of the West Bank at an unprecedented pace," and the measures "constitute a single policy" (Peace Now; full report, PDF). The report was extended into early 2026 because, it says, events kept happening; in the first two months of 2026 another nine communities and families were expelled, among them Ras Ein al-Auja, about 1,000 residents, citing B'Tselem. For 2024 Peace Now used the label "Year of Annexation & Expulsion," counting 24,258 dunams seized as "state land," 68 new settlements approved in three years, and more than 36,000 Palestinians displaced in twelve months (Chitter tag page).

The National summarized the report's central sentence as "systematic government policy aiming to deepen Israeli control over the West Bank and advance de facto annexation" (The National, 10 July 2026). Prime Minister Netanyahu's answer, as The National reported, was that settler violence had "blown up beyond belief" but came from roughly 150 "juvenile delinquents." The report's numbers are not about 150 people. They are about cabinet decisions, budgets, roads, and land registries.

The Israeli analyst: 69 settlements and 150 farms​

Amit Segal of Channel 12, who writes approvingly of the government's direction, gave his own count in February 2026: "Since the last election, Smotrich has recognized 69 new settlements in Judea and Samaria. In the same time period, 150 farms have been built—some with approval and some without—and development has begun in the E1 corridor" (Amit Segal on X, 16 February 2026). The Times of Israel's settlements reporter Jeremy Sharon counted 69 settlements established or legalized and 120 agricultural outposts during this government (Times of Israel, 19 February 2026).

The American counts​

  • Responsible Statecraft: "In 2025 alone, Israel approved 54 new West Bank settlements. In President Joe Biden's four years as president, it approved 14." "Eighty-six new settlement outposts, which are illegal even under Israeli law, were established in 2025." "2025 saw over 1,800 attacks" by settlers (Responsible Statecraft, 29 May 2026).
  • J Street: a record 50,000 new settlement housing units and more than 100 new settlements, with a parallel civilian bureaucracy reporting to Smotrich (J Street report, June 2026, PDF). Using maps by its policy fellow Frank Lowenstein and policy assistant Liam Hamama, featured in The New Yorker, J Street says "Israel today fully controls approximately 92% of Israel-Palestine, while the population of Jews and non-Jews is split 50/50" (J Street on X, 15 September 2026).

The Palestinian count for 2026​

The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported that Israel "has advanced 153 plans for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since the beginning of 2026, targeting the construction of more than 18,000 housing units" (as posted by Gaza Behind Scenes, 14 September 2026). On a single day, 26 August 2026, Israel approved 18 new or amended settlement jurisdiction areas, according to a daily update by the writer Shameen Suleman (Shameen Suleman on X, 26 August 2026).

The population​

  • Settler population since the Oslo Accords, as quoted from Foreign Affairs by Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: "grown from ~250,000 to >750,000, almost 1/4 of the population in the...West Bank & East Jerusalem....Relentless expansion of settlements has...broken up contiguous Palestinian territory" (Kenneth Roth on X, 15 January 2024).
  • The settler leader Daniella Weiss recruits, CNN reported, from "the 700,000 strong settler community" (CNN transcript, 20 March 2024). The Compass Report counts "Roughly 700,000 settlers" and 22 additional settlements approved in 2025, noting that Reuters documented that new outposts "get government grants, military coordination, and eventual official recognition" (The Compass Report on X, 10 September 2026).
  • Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, wrote to Netanyahu in August 2023 with a plan, endorsed by "hundreds" of settler leaders, to raise the settler population in his region to one million by 2050 (as quoted in a Quora answer summarizing reporting on the letter).

Land and footprint​

  • Settlement municipal jurisdictions "cover more than 42 percent of the West Bank," according to Israel Horizons, a progressive Israeli publication (Israel Horizons, December 2024, PDF).
  • The Israeli cabinet approved land registration in roughly half the West Bank, the first since 1967 (Chitter tag page); land registration had been suspended since 1968 (El País, below).
  • Smotrich has proposed annexing 85 percent of the West Bank under the principle of "maximum territory, minimum Arabs," El País reported (El País, 17 February 2026). A February 2026 compilation of ministers' positions put his target at 82 percent (Masi on X, 12 February 2026).
  • Beyond the West Bank: an account citing Financial Times satellite analysis says Israel has taken about 1,000 square kilometers of new territory since October 2023, "Most of it is Lebanon, then Palestine and then Syria" (The Vanguard on X, 19 May 2026). See 1,000 Square Kilometers Since October 2023.

To see it​

The political scientist Ian Bremmer shared an Al Jazeera animation of the "spread of israeli settlements/outposts in the west bank, 1970-2026" (Ian Bremmer on X, 24 September 2026), seen more than 88,000 times. The International Crisis Group keeps a visual guide, "Mapping Israeli Settlement Expansion (Updated 2025)" (Crisis Group). The Israeli researcher Dror Etkes has documented outposts for two decades (Al Jazeera English, 2 July 2021).

Evidence rating: de facto annexation of the West Bank, measured by settlements, outposts, land, and administration: CONFIRMED by Israeli monitors and the ministers' own statements.

Status: Amit Segal, Jeremy Sharon, Kenneth Roth, Daniella Weiss, Yossi Dagan, Bezalel Smotrich, Benjamin Netanyahu, Frank Lowenstein, Liam Hamama, Ian Bremmer, Dror Etkes, and Shameen Suleman are alive. Nothing on this page states that any of them committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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