Tel Aviv, November 7 (RHC)-- Israeli minister for military affairs Avigdor Lieberman reportedly plans to approve the construction of a new settlement in the Old City of al-Khalil (Hebron), south of the occupied West Bank.

The new settlement is to be established in an old Palestinian vegetables market in the Old City, Israeli news outlets reported from Tel Aviv.

Located in the center of al-Khalil -- one of the largest cities in the occupied West Bank -- the Old City was divided into Palestinian and Israeli-controlled areas, known as H1 and H2, following the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994.

The approval will come a few weeks after the Israeli regime approved plans for the construction of 31 new settler units in the occupied West Bank.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group that monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, said last month that the units will be built in al-Khalil, located 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem.

“For the first time in more than 20 years, Hebron will have a new Jewish neighborhood where a military camp once stood,” Lieberman said on October 14th.

The establishment of the new settlements comes in grave contravention of international law and a United Nations Security Council resolution against the Tel Aviv regime’s land grab policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Less than a month before U.S. President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.” 

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.