LONDON: The Palestinian Authority condemned on Wednesday an Israeli plan to build 2,162 new settlement housing units in the occupied West Bank.
It called on the US administration to intervene immediately to halt Israeli actions, which risk further escalation in the region, according to the Palestine News Agency.
The Higher Planning Council of the Civil Administration, which is part of the Israeli Defense Ministry, has approved the construction of new housing units in several settlements located in both the southern and northern West Bank. This includes 1,006 units designated for the Gvaot settlement, which the Israeli government officially recognized in March of last year.
All settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. The majority of UN General Assembly members have condemned the policy of settlement expansion as an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state and wider peace in the region.
Excluding East Jerusalem, about 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, alongside about 3 million Palestinians. Before the Israeli occupation in 1967, the region was under Jordanian control from 1948, and prior to that, the British Mandate governed it.
