Israel’s incoming hard-line government puts West Bank expansion at top of priority list

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party released the new government’s policy guidelines on Wednesday, the first of which was is that it will “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel — in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria” — the Biblical names for the West Bank.

Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

Mr Netanyahu’s new government — the most religious and hard-line in Israel’s history — is made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, an ultranationalist religious faction and his Likud party. It is to be sworn in on Thursday.