RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL 

Palestine decried on Thursday a major Israeli settlement project aimed at dividing the occupied West Bank and isolating East Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of 3,401 settler units at the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, east of Jerusalem, and 3,515 others in surrounding areas.

The project aims to split the occupied West Bank into two parts, cutting off the northern cities of Ramallah and Nablus from Bethlehem and Hebron in the south, and isolating East Jerusalem.

“It is the final nail in the coffin of the Palestinian state idea,” Smotrich said in a statement.

The settlement project is expected to be approved by the Israeli government next week, a move that has been delayed for many years due to international pressures, according to the daily Haaretz.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the settlement project as “a continuation of the (Israeli) occupation's plans to jeopardize the opportunity to embody the Palestinian state on its homeland, undermine its geographical and demographic unity, and perpetuate the division of the West Bank into isolated areas that are immersed in a settlement environment to facilitate the completion of their annexation.”

It said the settlement project was part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision for “Greater Israel,” and appealed to the international community to immediately intervene to “expose the (Israeli) occupation's racist colonial plans.”

Greater Israel is a Biblical term used in Israeli politics to refer to the expansion of Israel’s territory to include the West Bank, Gaza, Syria’s Golan Heights, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and parts of Jordan.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu told the news channel i24 that he feels “very attached” to the vision of "Greater Israel." He said he considers himself “on a historic and spiritual mission” that “generations of Jews that dreamt of coming here and generations of Jews who will come after us.”

'Settler terrorism'

The Palestinian Authority (PA) also denounced the settlement project as a continuation of “the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip and the settler terrorism that will not lead to anything but further escalation, tension, and instability” in the region.

In a statement, PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh held the Israeli government accountable for these “dangerous” actions and the US administration for not acting to stop the Israeli escalation.

Israel’s irresponsible and aggressive attacks “will only create a reality that violates international legitimacy and international law,” he warned.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel has built at least 710 settlements and military outposts in the occupied West Bank, an average of one settlement every 8 square kilometers (3 square miles), since 1967.

The international community, including the UN, considers the Israeli settlements illegal under international law. The UN has repeatedly warned that continued settlement expansion threatens the viability of a two-state solution, a framework seen as key to resolving the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In an advisory 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.