New Delhi, Dec. 22 -- Israel's Cabinet has approved a proposal for 19 new Jewish settlements

in the occupied West Bank,

the far-right finance minister said Sunday, as the government pushes ahead with a construction binge in the territory that further threatens the possibility of a Palestinian state.

That brings the

total number of new settlements

over the past few years to 69, a new record, according to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has pushed a settlement expansion agenda in the West Bank. The latest ones include two that were previously evacuated during a 2005 disengagement plan.

The approval increases the number of settlements in the West Bank by nearly 50% during the current far-right government's tenure. In 2022, there...