Israel expected to approve $350 million plan to fund 61 West Bank settlements

JERUSALEM — Israel's government is expected to approve on Tuesday a roughly $350 million plan to fund 61 settlement units in the occupied West Bank, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid. The multi-year budget proposal, backed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, would cover outposts that have been established without formal government authorization. Ravid reported that the planned settlement units are located in strategically sensitive areas, including sites along Route 90 in the Jordan Valley and the southern Hebron Hills. The funding is intended to create regional continuity between existing settlements, he said. Allocations from the plan are earmarked for temporary housing, public facilities, community infrastructure and support services. Ravid described the move as one of the largest settlement expansion steps taken in the region in recent decades. The approval comes amid heightened international scrutiny of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek as the core of a future independent state. No further details on the timing of the cabinet vote were immediately available.