JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

Israel has approved the construction of 1,300 new settlement units south of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

According to Israel's Channel 14, the government’s Special Planning and Building Committee in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc unanimously approved the plan earlier this week.

The decision comes less than a week after US President Donald Trump criticized Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

“Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Oct. 24.

His remarks came a day after the Israeli Knesset (parliament) gave preliminary approval to two draft laws to annex the occupied West Bank and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc, a move that would isolate East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings to the east and divide the West Bank into two.

The channel said the new settlement building represents an unprecedented expansion in the Har HaRusim neighborhood, located south of the Alon Shvut settlement, southwest of occupied East Jerusalem.

The Israeli plan also includes schools, public buildings, parks, and a large commercial zone expected to serve neighboring settlements, the broadcaster said.

The Gush Etzion Regional Council hailed the settlement building as “an appropriate response to the large number of residents seeking to live in the area.”

On Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has accelerated settlement construction and land seizures in the West Bank ahead of next year’s Knesset elections, aiming to create facts on the ground that would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

According to the same report, since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government took office in late 2022, Israel has advanced plans for around 48,000 settlement units in the West Bank, averaging roughly 17,000 units per year.

On Aug. 20, the government granted final approval for the “E1” settlement plan, which includes the construction of about 3,400 housing units near the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.

The Israeli rights group Peace Now has described the E1 plan as a “fatal blow” to the two-state solution, as it would separate the northern and southern West Bank and isolate East Jerusalem.

The UN has repeatedly affirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, warning that they undermine prospects for a two-state solution.

Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, based on international resolutions that do not recognize Israel’s 1967 occupation or its 1980 annexation of the city.