Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel's prime minister again on Thursday in a comeback at the head of a hard-right cabinet that promises to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The 73-year-old political veteran, who is on trial for graft charges he denies, has sought to calm concerns about the fate of civil rights and diplomacy since his bloc of nationalist and religious parties secured a parliamentary majority in a Nov. 1 election.

His allies include the Religious Zionism and Jewish Power parties, which oppose Palestinian statehood and whose leaders — both West Bank settlers — have in the past agitated against Israel's justice system, its Arab minority, and LGBT rights.

Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged to promote tolerance and pursue peace. He told parliament that "ending the Israeli-Arab conflict" was his top priority, along with thwarting Iran's nuclear program and building up Israel's military capacity.

His government secured 63 of a possible 120 parliamentary votes in a confirmatory ballot, before the cabinet was sworn in.

For Palestinians, Netanyahu's line-up has darkened an already bleak outlook, with violence surging and Jewish settlements set to expand in the West Bank — among territories where they hope to build a future state.

Netanyahu's conservative Likud party said in its guidelines for the government that it would "promote and develop settlement" on lands to which "the Jewish people has an exclusive and unassailable right."

This year has already seen some of the worst West Bank violence since 2015 as Israeli forces have cracked down on Palestinian unrest and militant attacks.

Abbas has criticized the new government saying its "motto is extremism and apartheid."

Such sentiments have been echoed within Israel, 21% of whose population are Arab and often identify with the Palestinians.

Palestinian economic growth, a more modest aim endorsed by Netanyahu, could also suffer should the conflict flare up anew.

"The political horizon influences the economy and all indications tell us the political situation will be bad,” Ibrahim Barham, a Palestinian businessman, told Reuters.

Netanyahu, now entering his sixth term, says he will serve all Israelis. He also appears to have stopped short of seeking West Bank annexations - a policy he had previously championed and which would have pleased his settler base while putting Israel on a collision course with Washington and Arab states.

Netanyahu, who was prime minister for three years in the 1990s and from 2009 to 2021, has said he seeks a breakthrough in forming diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia as he did in 2020 with other Gulf states that share Israel's concerns about Iran.

Riyadh has signaled no change in its position that any progress with Israel was contingent on Palestinian statehood.