# Israel put land for 732 settlement homes near Bethlehem up for bids, Palestinian monitor says The Gva'ot tender, with bids due in December, comes amid Israeli coalition talks. A Bedouin community east of Jerusalem got demolition notices a day earlier. By 567 Politics staff ยท 567politics Published: 2026-11-09T17:30:53.465205Z Updated: 2026-11-09T17:31:23.853079Z Canonical: https://567politics.com/news/palestine-gvaot-settlement-tender-732-units-abu-nuwar-demolition-notices-november-2026 Cite citation_url. Preserve source links, dates and qualifications. date_modified is an edit date, not proof that every claim was rechecked. Third-party images and quoted material retain their own rights. Resolve relative links against https://567politics.com/news/palestine-gvaot-settlement-tender-732-units-abu-nuwar-demolition-notices-november-2026. Israel has put land for 732 homes in the West Bank settlement of Gva'ot up for bids. A Palestinian Authority monitoring body says this moves the project from paper plans to the market. The tender, number 261/2026, appeared in the Israel Land Authority's register on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Authority's Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission. Bids open on Dec. 1 and close on Dec. 28, the commission said, as reported by the official [WAFA news agency](https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/176782). The tender comes as Israel moves toward a change of government. It also comes a day after Israeli authorities issued demolition and stop-work notices to a Bedouin community east of Jerusalem. The two moves have renewed a long-running dispute. Supporters of settlement call building there a national right and a security need. Palestinians and Israeli critics say it is taking land meant for a Palestinian state. ## What the tender covers Gva'ot lies in the Gush Etzion bloc, west of Bethlehem and south of Jerusalem. The tender covers the first phase of the project. It includes multi-story housing, shops and public buildings, according to the commission's reading of the register. A second tender, number 263/2026, markets land at the same site for commerce and public institutions. The commission said the step matters because it shifts the project from approving plans to selling land. That invites companies and developers to compete to build. It also took care to note the limits of the step. "The publication of a tender does not necessarily mean that construction has actually begun or that a contract has been awarded," the commission said, according to WAFA. "However, it represents a significant, practical step toward turning plans into reality on the ground." The 732-unit plan for Gva'ot, plan 418/2/1, appears in the Israeli group Peace Now's list of settlement plans advanced in 2026. Peace Now lists it at the "validation" stage, which in Israeli planning is final approval of a plan. 567 Politics could not open the Israel Land Authority's tender register directly. The tender details here come from the Palestinian commission and WAFA. They have not been independently confirmed against the original listing. ## Why the stage of a project matters Settlement building passes through several steps, and each side reads them differently. Peace Now describes the path for new settlements this way: after a cabinet decision, a settlement "must receive approval from the planning authorities in order to obtain detailed planning status and be formally recognized." Plans then go through deposit and validation. Land is then marketed by tender, and contracts follow. The Palestinian commission said a tender counts from the day it is first announced, "even if the full tender documentation has not yet been released or the submission of bids has not yet begun." That is why it reported the Gva'ot tender now, three weeks before bids open. The commission treats each step as part of one process. Smotrich, by contrast, called the October approvals "very important developments for the settlement enterprise." ## How fast planning has moved this year Two sets of figures show how much settlement planning and land marketing has advanced in 2026. They count different stages, so they should not be added together. The first is land marketing. The Palestinian commission says it reviewed the Israel Land Authority register. It found at least 28 tenders for land in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jan. 1 to Nov. 8. Eighteen of those included housing, with a total of 7,815 units. The other 10 were for non-residential uses. The second is planning approval. Peace Now tracks plans advanced by the Higher Planning Council, a body of the Civil Administration, the Israeli military's civilian arm in the West Bank. Its [list of plans approved since January 2026](https://peacenow.org.il/en/3new-settlements), updated on Nov. 8, totals 11,964 housing units. That total includes three plans the group says are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 11. The chart below shows the largest single plans on that list. In Israeli planning terms, a plan at the "deposit" stage has been published for public objections. A plan at "validation" has been given final approval. ```chart type: bar title: Largest West Bank settlement plans advanced by Israel's Higher Planning Council in 2026 note: Housing units per plan. Bracha, Mizpe Jericho, Eli and Amihai were at the deposit stage; the others at validation. Peace Now list updated Nov. 8, 2026. source: [Peace Now, list of plans approved since January 2026](https://peacenow.org.il/en/3new-settlements) --- Settlement (plan) | Housing units Kdumim (113/17) | 1338 Bracha (114/3) | 922 Gva'ot (418/2/1) | 732 Masua/Machane Gadi (312/6/1) | 517 Givat Zeev (220/1/36) | 498 Mizpe Jericho (228/6) | 456 Eli (237/4/1) | 406 Amihai (252/2) | 367 ``` Peace Now says the pace reflects a change in how plans move. In June 2023, the government removed the need for the defense minister to approve each stage of a settlement plan, the group says. Since November 2024, the council has met weekly instead of about four times a year. "In this way, the government seeks to normalize planning in settlements and attract less public and international attention and criticism," Peace Now argues in its [April 2026 report](https://peacenow.org.il/en/206hu). The group counted 27,941 housing units advanced from the start of 2025 to mid-April 2026, which it called an "all time record." In September, Peace Now said the legalization of outposts as new settlements was part of what it describes as the government's policy to establish 104 new settlements. Peace Now is an Israeli group that opposes settlement, and its figures are its own count from planning records. ## The government's case Finance Minister [Bezalel Smotrich](/politicians/bezalel-smotrich), who also holds a post in the Defense Ministry, has made settlement growth a central goal. He leads the [Religious Zionism party](/parties/israel/religious-zionism). On Oct. 26, Smotrich announced the legalization of two communities, Avigayil and Mitzpe Kramim, and the advance of 541 housing units, according to [Channel 14](https://www.c14news.com/article/1515819). "This is good news for the stability, security, and resilience of the State of Israel," he said. He tied the move to the coalition fight. "Facing an Eisenkot-Liberman-Golan government that wants to evacuate settlements and establish a Palestinian state, we are legalizing the settlements," he said. "We will continue to lead a broad wave of construction and legalization because this land belongs to us, it's that simple." Peace Now's list, updated on Nov. 8, shows a 278-unit plan for Avigail and a 200-unit plan for Kiryat Arba advanced on Oct. 28. Those match the figures in Smotrich's announcement. Smotrich's statement attributes to an Eisenkot-led government a plan to evacuate settlements. 567 Politics did not find a statement from [Gadi Eisenkot](/politicians/gadi-eisenkot) or his allies making that pledge. Smotrich's description is his own reading of his rivals' aims. Nor did 567 Politics find any statement from Eisenkot's camp on the Gva'ot tender. Israel's outgoing government is still in office while coalition talks continue. Eisenkot received the mandate to form a government after the October election, as 567 Politics reported in its story on [his shortest path to a 61-seat majority](/news/israel-eisenkot-haredi-parties-utj-shas-draft-deal-61-seats-november-2026). Tenders issued now would close in late December. By then a new government may or may not be in place. ## The Palestinian case The Palestinian commission calls the settlements "colonial." It says pairing housing and commercial tenders shows the aim is to make the project permanent. In its words, the pairing gives "economic and service-oriented components designed to ensure the sustainability of the project and entrench it further on Palestinian land in the Bethlehem Governorate." The Palestinian cabinet met in Ramallah on Monday and did not address the tender directly. But it approved distributing 184 million shekels in traffic-fee revenue to local councils. It said it would give priority to "areas threatened with Israeli dispossession and demolition, the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, and areas behind" the separation barrier, according to [WAFA's cabinet report](https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/176789). Half the sum, 92 million shekels, is for direct payments. The commission's monthly counts of incidents in the West Bank were the subject of an earlier 567 Politics story on [its October figures and the olive harvest](/news/palestine-west-bank-october-incidents-pa-commission-3133-ocha-olive-harvest-november-2026). Israel's military has also issued [land seizure orders for roads near several settlements](/news/palestine-israel-military-seizure-orders-ganim-kadim-ataret-roads-november-2026) this month. ## Demolition notices in Abu al-Nuwar On Sunday morning, Israeli authorities issued demolition and stop-work notices for four homes and farm buildings in Abu al-Nuwar, WAFA [reported](https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/176730). Abu al-Nuwar is a Bedouin community near the town of al-Eizariya, east of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate said the notices came days after Israeli authorities told residents of plans to close the only road into Abu al-Nuwar. That closure would also affect the nearby al-Wadi al-A'raj and al-Muntar areas, the governorate said. It described the steps as part of a policy of "restrictions and siege aimed at pressuring local Palestinians to leave their lands." 567 Politics did not find a public statement from the Civil Administration or COGAT, the Israeli body that oversees it, on the Abu al-Nuwar notices or the road closure. The account above is the Palestinian side's. ## What is known and what is not Several points are established by the sources reviewed. A tender numbered 261/2026 for 732 units in Gva'ot has been reported from the Israel Land Authority register. A 732-unit Gva'ot plan has passed planning approval, according to Peace Now. Smotrich has said publicly that he intends to keep building and legalizing settlements. Other points remain open. No developer has yet bid or won. Bids do not open until Dec. 1. It is not known whether a new government would keep, change or cancel tenders issued by the outgoing one. The legal and political status of settlements is disputed. Smotrich says "this land belongs to us." The Palestinian Authority and Israeli groups such as Peace Now say the building blocks a Palestinian state. Those claims involve law and values as much as facts, and this story does not settle them. For a broader view of how Israeli parties line up on the Palestinian question and other issues, see the 567 Politics spectrum chart below. Party positions shown there are dated editorial estimates, not measured scores. https://567politics.com/embed/political-spectrum?country=israel This story follows the 567 Politics [editorial standards](/editorial-standards), which require each side's claims to be attributed and tested against available evidence. It will be updated if Israeli authorities comment on the tender or the Abu al-Nuwar notices.