RAMALLAH / ISTANBUL

Israeli authorities issued a tender to build 3,401 new settler homes in an area known as E1, east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian government body said Wednesday.

In a statement, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission warned that the Israeli move could sever East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and block the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

The E1 area is a strategic corridor in East Jerusalem that Israel plans to use to link the occupied city with nearby settlements, including Maale Adumim, through land confiscation and new construction, a plan Palestinians say would prevent natural Palestinian urban expansion.

Commission head Muayyad Shaaban said the tender by Israel’s Land Authority signals the effective launch of a project that had been formally frozen for nearly three decades due to international pressure, adding that approval procedures for the plan were completed in August 2025.

He said the move aims to fully separate Jerusalem from its Palestinian hinterland, fragment the West Bank and prevent Palestinian urban growth east of Jerusalem, fundamentally altering the city’s geographic and demographic landscape.

According to Shaaban, Israel issued tenders in 2025 for 10,098 settlement units across the occupied West Bank, with more than 7,000 allocated to the Maale Adumim settlement.

Israel’s left-wing settlement watchdog Peace Now condemned the E1 tender as “political recklessness” that undermines any hope for a political solution and a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians.

It said the settlement building in E1 seeks to entrench irreversible facts on the ground that would lead to a single state, warning available indicators point toward an apartheid-like system.

The group said 2025 ended with a record 9,629 settlement homes, including more than 6,700 units in Maale Adumim, exceeding the total published tenders of the previous six years combined.

Peace Now added that the tenders stem from a government framework agreement signed in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between the Israeli government and the Maale Adumim municipality.

About 750,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, including about 250,000 in East Jerusalem, figures Palestinian officials cite as evidence of daily settler violence aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians.

For decades, the Palestinian Authority has urged the international community to pressure Israel to end settlement expansion, which the United Nations deems illegal, warning that any formal annexation of the West Bank would end prospects for a two-state solution envisioned in UN resolutions.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.