Over international objections, Israel has built scores of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Here is a look at the growth of four settlements.
Har Homa: Israel broke ground on Har Homa in 1997. Today it is a fast-growing east Jerusalem neighborhood with a population of 25,000. The Palestinians say its strategic location blocks West Bank areas from their hoped-for capital in Jerusalem
Ariel: The settlement was established in 1978 and has become one of the largest in the West Bank, with nearly 20,000 people attracted by affordable housing and easy access to central Israel. But its location, deep inside the northern West Bank, could make it a significant obstacle to Palestinian statehood.
Maaleh Adumim: Established in the 1970s, it has a mixed secular and religious population of roughly 40,000 people attracted by cheaper housing, good public services and its proximity to Jerusalem. While Israelis see the settlement as a suburb of their capital, the Palestinians say its large size and strategic location in the middle of the West Bank make it a contentious issue in any future talks.
Bruchin was established as an unauthorized outpost in the northern West Bank by hard-line ideological settlers and was retroactively legalized in 2012. Today it is home to roughly 800 religious settlers attracted to lands they say were promised by God to the Jewish people in the Bible.