Gush 'Etsyon (West Bank)

Gush Etzion (Hebrew: גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, lit. Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group dates back to the 1927 establishment of Migdal Eder, which was depopulated and destroyed after the 1929 Palestine riots; it includes four Jewish agricultural villages that were founded in 1943–1947 and depopulated and destroyed by the Arab Legion during the 1948 Palestine war, after the Kfar Etzion massacre on May 13, 1948, and the subsequent surrender of the other three communities. The area was left outside of Israel with the 1949 armistice lines. These settlements were rebuilt after the 1967 Six-Day War, along with new communities that have expanded the area of the Etzion Bloc. As of 2011, Gush Etzion consisted of 22 settlements with a population of 70,000. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but Israel disagrees.