The Zionist entity has legalized the status of three settlement outposts in the West Bank

The Zionist entity has legalized the status of three settlement outposts in the West Bank, the office of Zionist Premier Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

At a meeting late Monday, a ministerial committee "decided to formalize the status of three communities which were established in the 1990s following the decisions of past governments," said the statement.

According to the Jewish entity’s law, the three outposts -- Bruchin, Rechelim and Sansana -- had no legal status since being established.

Bruchin has around 350 residents and is located in the northern West Bank, along with Rechelim, which is home to around 240 people. Sansana, home to 240 people, is in the southern West Bank, near Hebron.

An ‘Israeli’ official stressed on Tuesday that the committee's "decision does not change the reality on the ground" nor does it "establish new settlements or expand existing settlements."

But Hagit Ofran of Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now slammed the government for establishing new settlements in a deceitful way.

"The Israeli government is proving its true policy, that instead of going to peace it is building new settlements," she told AFP on Tuesday.

Ofran stressed the decision changes the reality on the ground.

"All the years these outposts weren't legal, the state said they aren't for real, and now they suddenly are," she said.

The Zionist entity considers settler outposts built without government approval to be illegal, but the international community views all settlements as unlawful, whether approved by the government or not.