Map of Jewish Settlements in the West Bank: Where They Are and How Many

A map of Jewish settlements in the West Bank shows Israeli communities spread across the whole territory, with the largest clusters around Jerusalem, along the western edge near the 1949 armistice line, and in a chain down the Jordan Valley. Because settlements are approved, expanded and added every year, the reliable maps are the interactive ones kept up to date by the UN and by monitoring groups, which are linked below.

This page explains in words what those maps show: where the settlements are, how many there are according to named sources, what the Allon Plan was, and how international bodies and Israel each describe their legal status.

Where to find an up-to-date map of settlements in the West Bank

We do not publish our own map, because a static image goes out of date within months. These are the sources that researchers, journalists and aid agencies use.

• UN OCHA maps for the occupied Palestinian territory: an interactive map plus downloadable maps of access restrictions, the barrier, settlements and settler attacks, updated through 2026.
• OCHA Humanitarian Atlas: detailed reference maps of every part of the West Bank, showing Areas A, B and C alongside settlements.
• Peace Now settlements map and GIS layers: an interactive map from the Israeli monitoring group Peace Now, with each settlement and outpost marked.
• Peace Now list of settlements: names, founding years and populations.

What the map of Israeli West Bank settlements shows

Settlements are found in every part of the West Bank, but they are not evenly spread. The CIA World Factbook's final edition noted that the most populous ones are in the zone between the 1949 armistice line and the separation barrier, and around Jerusalem. Reading the map from the center outward, the main groupings are these.

Outside East Jerusalem, settlements are concentrated in Area C, the roughly 61 percent of the West Bank that stayed under full Israeli control under the 1995 Oslo II agreement. The EU report notes that in 2025 new outposts were also set up in Area B. Our guide to the size of Palestine and Areas A, B and C explains that division.

• East Jerusalem and its ring. Large settlement neighborhoods stand inside the area Israel annexed in 1967, with further settlements around the city. Ma'ale Adumim lies to the east, next to the area known as E1.
• The Gush Etzion bloc, between Jerusalem and Hebron in the south, and Kiryat Arba beside Hebron. Britannica names both among the earliest settlement areas.
• The western edge, close to the 1949 armistice line (the Green Line), where many of the largest settlements by population sit.
• The northern and central hills, in the Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah areas. The EU's report on 2025 describes settlements and outposts here, such as Itamar near Nablus, and efforts to re-establish settlements including Homesh and Sa-Nur that were evacuated in 2005.
• The Jordan Valley, along the eastern side of the West Bank, where, as Britannica puts it, settlements were developed after 1967 in locations chosen for strategic reasons.

How many settlements and settlers are there?

Counts differ between sources, mainly because of whether East Jerusalem is included and how newly approved settlements and unauthorized outposts are counted. These are the most recent figures we could find, with their dates.

For comparison, Britannica records that the number of settlers was nearly 630,000 in 2019, or 413,000 without East Jerusalem. Israel removed its settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

• Peace Now counts 146 settlements in the West Bank that were officially established by the Israeli government, not including East Jerusalem (count dated 1 August 2026), and about 390 outposts, including farm outposts (count dated May 2026). Outposts are built without government approval and are illegal under Israeli law, although dozens have since been legalized.
• Peace Now, citing Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, gives 511,100 settlers in the West Bank at the end of 2023, not including East Jerusalem.
• The European Union's report on 2025, published in July 2026, says more than 750,000 settlers live in 147 settlements and a growing number of outposts across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. That is about 15 percent of the West Bank's population.
• The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) counted 151 settlements and 350 outposts at the end of 2025, and 778,567 settlers at the end of 2024, of whom 243,716 lived in East Jerusalem.

How fast are settlements growing?

According to the EU report, 2025 saw the Israeli government approve plans for 54 new official settlements in the West Bank, the highest number recorded in a single year, while 86 new outposts were set up. Peace Now's data shows outposts being established at a far higher rate since 2023 than in any earlier period.

The same report cites UN OCHA as documenting 1,828 settler attacks that caused casualties or property damage in 2025, up from 1,420 in 2024, the highest annual total since OCHA began monitoring in 2006. A UN Human Rights Office report published in March 2026, covering the year to 31 October 2025, said more than 36,000 Palestinians had been displaced in the West Bank in that period.

What was the Allon Plan?

The Allon Plan was a proposal drawn up by the Israeli minister Yigal Allon in July 1967, weeks after Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the Six-Day War. Allon, a former military commander, served as deputy prime minister.

According to Britannica, the plan proposed returning most of the West Bank to Jordan while Israel kept military settlements along the Jordan River. The Center for Israel Education describes it as a strategic proposal for Israel to retain the Jordan Valley, with a series of Jewish settlements and military installations acting as a buffer against attack from the east. In short, Israel would hold a strip on the eastern side, and the hill country where most Palestinians lived would not be annexed.

The plan was never formally adopted. Britannica notes that it nonetheless spurred the growth of settlements in the decades that followed, and that Israel's political and defense leadership, inspired in part by it, developed settlements in strategic locations such as the Jordan Valley. That is why the chain of Jordan Valley settlements on today's maps is often described as the Allon Plan's legacy. Settlement did not stop there. Britannica records that ideologically motivated settlers founded communities elsewhere, such as Kiryat Arba near Hebron, and that the number of settlers, including in East Jerusalem, grew from more than 280,000 in 1993 to nearly 630,000 in 2019.

Are the settlements legal under international law?

The United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) say they are not. UN Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on 23 December 2016, states that Israel's settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have "no legal validity" and constitute "a flagrant violation under international law".

In an advisory opinion on 19 July 2024, the ICJ found that Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful. As summarized by the UN's Commission of Inquiry, the Court said Israel is under an obligation to cease all new settlement activity immediately and to evacuate settlers from the territory. Advisory opinions are not legally binding, but they carry considerable legal and political weight. The European Union states that it remains its firm position that settlements are illegal under international law.

Israel rejects this. The BBC reported at the time of the ICJ opinion that Israel has consistently disputed that the settlements are against international law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded that "the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land" and that the legality of Israeli settlements "cannot be disputed". Israel also treats East Jerusalem, which it annexed, as part of its own territory; most other countries do not recognize that annexation.

Why this matters beyond the map

For Palestinians in the West Bank, the pattern on the map decides which roads they can use, where they can build and whether they can reach their farmland. The UN reports above describe families leaving their homes as a result.

Fight for Palestine's relief work is focused on Gaza, where we fund food, clean water, medical aid and shelter through local partner teams. If you want to help, you can read about humanitarian aid in Gaza, find ways to help without money, or donate.