The Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has released a map showing that 44.5% of the occupied West Bank is now under Israeli control. The map included in the report prepared by the Negotiations Affairs Department provides an overview of the increasing settlement expansion in the West Bank. It indicates that Israel has built 5 new settlements in addition to 50 new outposts in 2024 alone, demonstrating that 44.5% of the West Bank territories are now under Israeli control or annexed behind the “Separation Wall.” The report stated that the number of Israelis encroaching on Palestinian lands in the West Bank has tripled since 1995, reaching approximately 740,000 by 2024, warning that Israel’s policies are rapidly and irrevocably undermining the feasibility of a two-state solution. The report hinted that if settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank persist in this manner, the settlements on confiscated lands could grow up to five times their current size. The United Nations considers settlement in occupied territories as an illegal activity and has been calling for its cessation for decades, warning that it undermines the chance of resolving the conflict based on the “two-state principle.” Following the start of attacks on Gaza, Tel Aviv escalated the settlement pace in the West Bank, with increasing declarations rejecting the annexation of the West Bank and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government called on US President Donald Trump to recognize its sovereignty over the West Bank, while Trump, in a statement on February 4, mentioned that the administration will soon release a decision on the matter. Israel, which has been occupying territories in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon for decades, refuses to withdraw from these lands and to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital as it was before the 1967 war.