Ignoring the international outcry against its settlement expansion policies, the Israeli regime is planning to build 251 new settler units in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestine News Network.
The head of the Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bethlehem, Hassan Bureijia, said in a statement, Sunday, that the High Planning Committee of the Israeli Civil Administration has approved the construction of 146 housing units in Gush Etzion settlement, to the south of Bethlehem, while 105 settler homes will be built in Kfar Eldad settlement, south of Jerusalem.
Bureijia said Israeli authorities have also seized a vast area of land in Nahalin village, in order to expand the illegal Alon Shvut settlement.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories,on several resolutions.
Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.”
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The last round of Palestinian-Israeli talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion in Palestinian territories.
(archive photo image)
