ISLAMABAD:Pakistan on Tuesday “strongly” condemned an Israeli expansion plan to build over 4,500 new settlements inside the occupied West Bank, after Israel’s government gave a pro-settlement firebrand authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process. 

The changes make it easier for Israel to expand its settlements on land the Palestinians seek as the heartland of their future state, at a time when hopes for peace are more distant than ever. The change also comes as an Israeli planning committee said it was planning to bring for approval some 4,500 West Bank housing units when it meets next week.

“This makes the universally-accepted goal of achieving two-state solution even more distant & sows the seeds of renewed & perpetual instability and violence,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter.

“The unprovoked, illegal & unethical Israeli actions continue to undermine peace with no regard for international law, and the UN resolutions. Pakistan is committed to supporting the Palestinians’ just struggle for an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

On Sunday, the Israeli government gave Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich control over planning in West Bank settlements, a condition he had made to join the government. The authority over planning in the territory, which is under a 56-year military occupation, is traditionally the purview of the country’s defense minister. Smotrich is also a minister within the Defense Ministry.

The decision also removes the need for approvals from the political echelon throughout the planning process, requiring only one initial approval. Critics say that not only normalizes construction in the West Bank, making it nearly as simple as building anywhere in Israel proper. 

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and in the decades since has built dozens of settlements that are now home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers living alongside around 2.5 million Palestinians. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians seek the territory, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, for a future independent state.