Brussels, February 26 (RHC)-- The European Union has condemned the latest decision by Israel’s far-right administration to construct thousands of new illegal settler units across the occupied West Bank in open defiance of the international outcry over the Tel Aviv regime’s land theft and settlement expansion policies.

“This exceeds the total number advanced during all of 2022, which was a record year in terms of illegal settlement expansion,” Nabila Massrali, the EU spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a statement.  And she added: “The EU reiterates its position that settlements are illegal under international law.”

Massrali also renewed the EU’s call on Israeli authorities “to halt settlement construction and to reverse these latest decisions as a matter of urgency.”

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have confiscated 193 dunams (193,000 square meters) of Palestinian land in the eastern West Bank town of al-Auja, located ten kilometers (six miles) north of Ariha, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

Muayad Shaaban, the head of the commission, said that Israeli authorities seized the area under the pretext of “public interest”, adding that the move will increase the regime’s control over the region and will deny Palestinians of their right to erect residential building or recreational facilities there.

While Israeli officials allege to have confiscated Palestinian lands for public interest, Israeli settlers are the sole beneficiary of the seizure, Shaaban noted.  More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.  The Palestinians have historically demanded that the West Bank serve as part of their future state with East al-Quds, which is located inside the territory, as its capital.