Tel Aviv, February 26 (RHC)-- Israeli authorities have approved plans for the construction of thousands of new settler units in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds, defying international outcry over illegal settlement expansion and land grab activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian Information Center reported that the so-called Israeli Supreme Planning and Building Council has given the green light for plans to build 4,000 units, only a few days after it endorsed another 3,000 units.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the plans for the construction of the 7,287 settlement units were approved within two days.  It is the largest number of settler units that has been endorsed since 2021, the paper added.   The settlements in which the new settler units will be built are Ma'ale Adumim, Kokhav Ya'akov, Giv'at Ze'ev, Ma'ale Amos, and Eliezer.

Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the UN chief is deeply worried about the Israeli regime’s announcement of plans to construct over 7,000 new settler units, stating that their implementation would cut the connection between the northern and southern sectors of the occupied West Bank.  

“Settlements have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions. They further entrench Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian territory and undermine the possibility of a viable and contiguous Palestinian State as part of a negotiated two-state solution,” Stéphane Dujarric said during a daily press briefing on Friday.

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 international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions. The regime’s unabated construction campaign comes while 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.