Construction of thousands of new settler units in the occupied West Bank is on the agenda of the Israeli regime’s officials, defying international outcry over illegal settlement expansion and land grab activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Media reports quoting Israeli sources said on Sunday that the plans for approval of 4,560 settler units in various areas of the West Bank were included on the agenda of an Israeli planning council that meets next week.
At least 1,332 are up for final approval, with the remainder still going through the preliminary clearance process.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also handles civil administration in the occupied West Bank, confirmed the regime would press ahead with its settlement expansion campaign.
“We will continue to develop the settlement of and strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory,” said Smotrich.
Smotrich was sworn in last year as a member of the regime’s new far-right cabinet led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The minister and his Zionist group have a history of making incendiary remarks against the Palestinians.
In February, Smotrich called for the Palestinian town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank to be “wiped out.” Hundreds of armed Israeli settlers then attacked Huwara and the nearby villages and torched dozens of houses and cars.
During a conference in Paris in March, Smotrich denied the existence of Palestine and stood beside a map of Israeli-occupied territories that included the West Bank, Gaza and most of Jordan.
Another Israeli hardline minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir has said building new settlements is “Israel’s mission and doctrine.”
The Israeli regime has already authorized new settlement outposts and pledged to construct new settler units in the West Bank.
Since taking office in January, Netanyahu’s coalition has approved the promotion of more than 7,000 new settler units, most deep in the West Bank. It also amended a law to clear the way for settlers to return to four settlements that had previously been evacuated.
In response to Sunday’s Israeli decision, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in a statement on Sunday condemned the move, saying it “will not give (Israel) legitimacy over our land. Our people will resist it by all means.”
Hamas said that the Palestinian people would resist Israeli settlement plans with all means available, including its latest plan to build over 4,500 settler units.
Elsewhere in the statement, the resistance movement called on the international community and the UN to take serious and urgent steps to stop Israel’s Judaization and colonial projects in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, warned on Thursday that the policies pursued by Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet in the occupied Palestinian territories will set the entire region ablaze.
Emboldened by former US president Donald Trump’s all-out support, Israel has stepped up its illegal settlement construction activities in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”
Much of the international community regards the Israeli settler units in the occupied lands as illegal.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
