Israel is due to build thousands of new homes for Jewish settlers this week West Bank, said a settlement monitoring team on Sunday.
The plan to establish about 3,000 new settlements in the West Bank has already prompted calls for restrictions from the US, which on Friday expressed “concern” about the expected permits.
Hagit Ofran of the anti-settler group Peace Now said the committee would meet on Wednesday to approve 2,800 apartments deep in the West Bank, complicating all efforts to create a Palestinian state. More than half of them are undergoing final approval, which means construction can begin next year.
On Friday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US was “worried” about housing plans. He called on Israel and the Palestinians to “refrain from unilateral action that exacerbates tensions and undermines efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict.”