Ramallah, May 12 (RHC)-- The Israeli regime has announced plans to build a new illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank in defiance of international calls for halting the illegitimate practice.

Israel’s Ministry of Military Affairs said that the settler units will be built near the unlawful settlement of Silo in the northern West Bank, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.  Composed of 139 housing units, the new complex is intended for the 40 families now living in the settlement outpost of Amona, which is set to be evacuated by the end of the year.

Amona was built in 1997 on private Palestinian lands east of the West Bank city of Ramallah.  In 2006, Israel’s High Court ruled that the outpost was illegal, ordering its demolition.  After repeated delays to carry out the court’s eviction order, Tel Aviv announced that only some of the buildings would be destroyed.

In May 2014, an Israeli police investigation said that the entire outpost lay on private Palestinian lands.  In December that year, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the regime to completely evacuate and raze the settlement within two years.