Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed a forthcoming settlement expansion near a UNESCO Heritage Site in the Occupied West Bank, detailing plans in a statement on X today, August 14. The announcement follows a June proposal from the Israel Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration seeking to legalize five new settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

Aiming to connect Jerusalem with Gush Etzion, a cluster of Israeli settlements located southeast of the city, Israeli forces are looking to establish a new settlement called Nachal Heletz, said Smotrich’s statement, which notes that part of the objective is to prevent Palestinian statehood. The news could stoke tensions between Israeli and Palestinian officials in advance of tomorrow’s scheduled negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 39,677 people and injured over 91,645 others since Hamas’s October 7 attack.

The new settlement would encompass approximately 148 acres (~60 hectares) located within the protection zone for the historic Palestinian village of Battir. Situated southeast of Bethlehem, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is known for its ancient dry-stone terrace farms, lush olive tree groves, and a traditional irrigation system dating back hundreds of years, which supports the livelihoods of around 40% of the village’s 5,000 residents. Activists have long warned that the site has been increasingly encroached on by Israeli settlers and military forces.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry decried the new plans as part of Israel’s “expansionist colonial policy,” reported Anadolu Agency.

Hyperallergic has contacted UNESCO, the Israel Planning Administration, and the City of Bethlehem for comment.

The news comes less than a month after UNESCO voted to inscribe Palestine’s Saint Hilarion Monastery onto its official World Heritage List and List of World Heritage in Danger. Located in central Gaza, the 1,700-year-old monastery site known as Tell Umm Amer was the fifth place in Palestine to be added to the World Heritage List, which totals 1,223 properties and structures across 168 countries.