Israel's cabinet voted Sunday to formally authorise a rogue West Bank settlement in response to last month's murder of a rabbi who lived there, officials said, in a rare move likely to spark an international outcry. The vote came as European nations voiced growing concern over settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory, but with US President Donald Trump largely refraining from such criticism, which many Israelis see as a green light.
Israeli authorities have advanced plans for thousands of new settlement homes in recent months, although cabinet votes to authorise a pre-existing outpost are relatively rare. Sunday's vote to authorise the Havat Gilad outpost was unanimous, an official familiar with the proceedings said on condition of anonymity.
Speaking at the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "the government will today regularise the status of Havat Gilad to allow the continuance of normal life there". The official cabinet agenda said the motion would designate the 15-year-old outpost as a "new community" which will have the necessary building permits and a state budget.
The agenda said about 40 families live in the outpost, but envisages its enlargement. Israeli media, however, said it was unclear how the authorisation would proceed, as parts of the outpost may have to be moved elsewhere if found to have been built on private Palestinian land.
Rabbi Raziel Shevach was shot dead near Havat Gilad, where he lived, on January 9. The following week, Israeli troops searching for his attackers shot dead what they described as a Palestinian suspect in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of Havat Gilad.
However, they did not catch the man suspected of being responsible for Shevach's killing, 22-year-old Ahmed Jarrar. The manhunt continued on Saturday with a raid on the West Bank village of Burqin, near Nablus, sparking clashes during which soldiers shot dead a teenager identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Ahmad Abu Obeid, 19.