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Thursday 30 Oct 2025
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
Israel approves 1,300 new settler homes south of East Jerusalem in one of the largest expansions in the Gush Etzion bloc despite US criticism. (Photo/Reuters)
Israel has approved the construction of 1,300 new illegal settlement units south of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli media reported.
According to Israel's Channel 14, the government’s Special Planning and Building Committee in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc unanimously approved the plan earlier this week.
The decision comes less than a week after US President Donald Trump criticized Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
"Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank," Trump told reporters at the White House on October 24.
His remarks came a day after the Israeli Knesset (parliament) gave preliminary approval to two draft laws to annex the occupied West Bank and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc, a move that would isolate East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings to the east and divide the West Bank into two.
Unprecedented expansion
The channel said the new settlement building represents an unprecedented expansion in the Har HaRusim neighbourhood, located south of the Alon Shvut settlement, southwest of occupied East Jerusalem.
On Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has accelerated settlement construction and land seizures in the occupied West Bank ahead of next year’s Knesset elections, aiming to create facts on the ground that would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government took office in late 2022, Israel has advanced plans for around 48,000 settlement units in the occupied West Bank, averaging roughly 17,000 units per year.
In August, the government granted final approval for the "E1" settlement plan, which includes about 3,400 housing units near the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.
The UN has repeatedly affirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, warning they undermine the prospects for a two-state solution.
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Source: TRT
