Ramallah, October 14 (RHC)-- Ignoring the international outcry against its settlement expansion policies, the Israeli regime is planning to build 251 new settler units in the occupied West Bank.

The head of the Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bethlehem, Hassan Bureijia, said in a statement on Sunday that High Planning Committee of the Israeli Civil Administration has approved the construction of 146 housing units in Gush Etzion settlement south of Bethlehem, while 105 settler homes will be built in Kfar Eldad settlement south of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Bureijia said Israeli authorities have also seized a vast area of land in Nahalin village in order to expand Alon Shvut settlement.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Less than a month before U.S. President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem."

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.  The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.