Key Israeli cabinet members gathered on Sunday to initiate a new wave of demolitions against Palestinian homes in Area C after a dispute erupted over the rare expulsion of illegal Jewish settlers from a new outpost in the occupied West Bank, The New Arab reported.

Far-right ministers reportedly agreed to forcibly halt all new Palestinian building projects in Area C – which accounts for 60 percent of all land in the West Bank – before they reach completion, according to Israeli media.

Israeli Forces Remove Settler Outpost in West Bank, Angering Far-Right Ministers

All major Palestinian cities in the West Bank – Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jericho – are surrounded by land designated as Area C, seen as essential to any future Palestinian state.

According to Israel Hayom, this new phase of land dispossession has received the blessing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after a dispute between Likud Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and far-right Bezalel Smotrich who also holds a ministerial post in the defense ministry.

The disagreement came after the Israeli army took the rare decision to evict a number of Jewish settlers from an unauthorized outpost in the occupied West Bank, erected hours earlier.

The move provoked the anger of pro-settler activists and members of Netanyahu’s far-right government, including Smotrich who himself lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu issued a statement, saying: “The government supports settlements, but only when they are done legally and in prior coordination with the prime minister and security officials, which did not happen in this case”.

Smotrich had tried to order the army to cancel the demolition of the wild cat settlement.

Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, also living in a settlement, attacked the decision in the Knesset, alleging that the Israeli army demolishes more Jewish settlements than it does Palestinian homes.

(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)