Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip 20 years ago, dismantling 21 Jewish settlements and pulling out its forces. The Friday anniversary of the start of the landmark disengagement comes as Israel is mired in a nearly two-year war with Hamas. The conflict has devastated the Palestinian territory and is likely to keep troops there long into the future. Israel's disengagement included removing four settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial attempt to jump-start negotiations with the Palestinians. But it bitterly divided Israeli society and led to the empowerment of Hamas, with implications that continue to reverberate today.

Israel's far-right finance minister says a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is going ahead, a project that Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts. The announcement on Thursday comes as many countries said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly. Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says the "reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize."

A groups that monitors settlements in the West Bank says Israel has budgeted millions of dollars to protect and support the growth of small, unofficial Jewish farms in the Israeli-occupied territory. Documents uncovered by Peace Now illustrate how Israel's pro-settler government has quietly poured money into the unauthorized outposts, some of which have been linked to violence against Palestinians and have been sanctioned by the U.S. The Ministry of Settlements and National Mission, which is headed by a far-right settler leader, has confirmed it budgeted over $20 million last year for security equipment for unauthorized Jewish farms and outposts. The money was quietly authorized in December while the country's attention was focused on the war against Hamas.

A settlement tracking group says Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades. Peace Now said Wednesday that authorities recently approved the appropriation of nearly 5 square miles of land in the Jordan Valley. The group's data indicate it is the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process. The Palestinians view the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement and most of the international community views them as illegitimate. Israel's government considers the West Bank to be the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people and is opposed to Palestinian statehood.