Israeli gov't approves new West Bank settlement units

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Israeli government on Wednesday approved construction of 450 new Jewish-only settlement units in the occupied West Bank.

According to Israel’s Channel 7, the government’s planning and building committee approved construction of the new housing units in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem.

Roughly 600,000 Israeli settlers currently live on more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which were illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.

The Palestinians, for their part, want these areas -- along with the Gaza Strip -- for a future state of Palestine.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all settlement-building activity on the land as illegal.