Peace Now Data Puts West Bank and East Jerusalem Settler Population at 750,000 as Israel Advances Nearly 28,000 New Housing Units

There are at least 148 illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and 15 in occupied East Jerusalem, 163 in total, according to Peace Now, the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog cited in an Al Jazeera mapping project published this week. The group puts the combined settler population at roughly 750,000, about 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population.

The figures track a network that began as scattered hilltop outposts after Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967 and has since grown into a system of towns, connector roads, and highways binding settlements to each other and to Israel proper. By 2024, the 163 counted settlements held 744,700 residents, 511,100 in the West Bank and 233,600 in East Jerusalem, according to figures cited in the report. More than 400 additional outposts exist without formal Israeli authorization, a number Al Jazeera describes as a record, though many such outposts are eventually absorbed into recognized settlements, making a precise tally difficult.

According to the report, nearly 28,000 housing units were advanced within existing settlements in the West Bank in 2025 alone, more growth than came from founding new settlements or outposts.

The E1 approval

In August 2025, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved more than 3,000 homes in the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem, a plan that had been frozen for decades under international pressure. The project would extend Maale Adumim and, according to the report, sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

Smotrich said the move would "bury the idea of a Palestinian state."

The approval drew condemnation from nearly 30 governments and the European Commission, which called it "unacceptable and a violation of international law," according to the report.

Settlements are considered illegal under international law because they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on an occupying power transferring its population into occupied territory. The UN Security Council, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Court of Justice have affirmed that position, most recently in the ICJ's July 2024 advisory opinion.

Attacks at record levels

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded 1,836 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage in 2025, more than double the 852 recorded in 2022, an average of roughly five attacks a day. The report describes a weeks-long siege of the West Bank town of Qusra that began in August and continues under Israeli military enforcement.

The report distinguishes two broad categories of settlers: those drawn by economic incentives such as subsidized mortgages and discounted land, and religious-nationalist settlers, including so-called "hilltop youth," who establish unauthorized outposts and, according to the report, have carried out attacks on Palestinian communities with the Israeli military at times standing by or backing them. Some experts and UN officials describe the pattern of settler violence as pogroms, a characterization the report notes is increasingly used but remains a matter of interpretation rather than settled legal terminology.

Modi'in Illit is the largest settlement, with 89,301 residents, followed by Beitar Illit with 70,251 and Pisgat Ze'ev with 48,419, according to the figures cited.