The announcement followed a meeting between Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah last week. The Coordinator of Governmental Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said Israel would legalize the status of 5,500 Palestinians and undocumented foreigners living in the West Bank and Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians and foreign nationals are believed to be living in the West Bank and Gaza without proper documentation. Many arrived from abroad to marry a Palestinian and live in Palestinian towns. However, Israel does not recognize a legal right for Palestinians to live with foreign spouses in territories it controls – a process known as “family reunification”. Israel says it grants visas in “exceptional humanitarian circumstances.” But in practice, the issue had been frozen for over a decade, leading to sporadic protests in Ramallah by affected families. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms In the past year, Israel has legalized the status of 12,000 Palestinians and undocumented foreigners, according to COGAT. Palestinians and their spouses demonstrate to demand West Bank residency cards in front of the Palestinian Authority’s Political Affairs Committee in Ramallah. (Courtesy: Alaa Mutair) Other measures announced by COGAT included the approval of six Palestinian housing projects in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel maintains civilian control. About 330,000 Palestinians and 450,000 Israeli settlers live in the 60 percent of the West Bank that makes up Area C, according to figures from the UN and Israeli authorities respectively. In May, an official told The Times of Israel that the Defense Ministry would promote 1,000 Palestinian homes in Area C following greenfield projects for some 4,500 Jewish settlements. However, the permits for the Palestinians were never approved and it was unclear if the six new projects were the ones reported three months ago. The move appeared to be part of Gantz’s policy to promote housing plans for both populations in the West Bank after more than a decade in which only dozens of permits were approved for Palestinians compared to the nearly 25,000 homes built for settlers. . In a separate move ahead of the Biden visit, Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office said it would delay a meeting to promote housing projects for Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that was scheduled to take place days after the US president’s trip. Biden is due to land at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday for a visit that will include Israel and the West Bank, before departing for Saudi Arabia on Friday. A view of construction in the West Bank settlement of Efrat on January 26, 2017. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90) COGAT also said Israel would increase the number of work permits for Gaza’s Palestinians by 1,500 to reach a total of 15,500. The Defense Ministry has signed off on a tentative plan to eventually increase the number of clearances in Gaza to 20,000, a dramatic and unprecedented increase. As of mid-2021, only 7,000 Palestinians from Gaza had permits to work or trade in Israel. Defense officials say allowing more Gazans to work in Israel will pump much-needed income into the impoverished coastal enclave while encouraging stability. Palestinian men gather to apply for work permits in Israel at the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on October 6, 2021. (Mahmud Hams/AFP) Finally, COGAT said Israel would open the Salem crossing in the northern West Bank – near the Israeli city of the same name – for Arab Israelis to enter the Palestinian city of Jenin. The Salem Crossing has been largely closed to civilian traffic in recent years, prompting COGAT to designate it as a “new” entrance to the West Bank. Further measures were being considered by COGAT and were to be announced separately if approved by officials. Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. (AP/Collage) In response to the gestures, opposition lawmakers Yoav Kisch of Likud and Orit Strock of Religious Zionism — co-chairs of the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus — criticized the government for the decisions. “The Lapid-Bennett administration’s ‘confidence-building measures’ to the Palestinians are destructive to the Israeli electorate,” Kisch and Strock said in a statement. They accused the current ministers of being “preoccupied with salvaging the remnants of their political careers” instead of keeping their election promises. Religious Zionist Knesset member Ofir Sofer claimed the series of decisions ahead of the Biden visit is “a tradition of terror, nothing less and nothing more.” Thursday’s meeting between Ganj and Abbas “was held on positive terms,” Ganj’s office said in a statement. The two discussed political cooperation and “the complexities of the coming period in Israel,” Gantz’s office said, apparently referring to the election cycle. Gantz met with Abbas twice more in the past year, including at Gantz’s Rosh Ha’ayin residence. Both meetings followed Israeli announcements to meet some Palestinian demands. Meanwhile, there have been regular clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months, following a series of deadly terror attacks against Israelis earlier this year. Jacob Magid and The Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. You are a devoted reader We are really glad that you read X Times of Israel articles last month. 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