Based on several meetings he had with Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Revivi believes the Trump administration has not really drawn clear lines about what settlement it could live with.

“They said to the prime minister, ‘We are not going to put any limits on you, but just make sure that what you do doesn’t get us upset,’ Mr. Revivi said. “I think that’s where Prime Minister Netanyahu is: not knowing just how much he can pull the strings without getting the American administration upset.”

Most of the world considers the settlements, built in the territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war — the heartland of any future Palestinian state — to be a violation of international law.

Hagit Ofran, who monitors construction for Peace Now, a leftist Israeli advocacy group that opposes settlement activity, said there had been a sharp acceleration in the promotion of plans compared with the last two years. The rate now, she said, is similar to that in 2014, which was a bumper year. (The relative slump in 2015 and 2016 might have been due to a glut.)

“The strategy is to confuse us,” Ms. Ofran said. And Israel, she said, is now allowing itself to build in places where it has held off for decades.

For example, approval is being given for 31 new apartments in the Jewish settlement in the heart of the contested and volatile city of Hebron, although that project is expected to be held up by a legal challenge by Hebron’s Palestinian-run City Hall.

And for the first time in 20 years, final approval is also being given for a new settlement, Amihai, to accommodate the families who were evacuated from the illegal Israeli outpost of Amona, which was built on private Palestinian land.