Israel announces 3,401 new housing units in West Bank

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday he has approved the construction of 3,401 housing units for settlers in a particularly controversial area of the occupied West Bank.

The homes would be built in the E1 area, a stretch of land east of Jerusalem between the city and the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Construction there is seen as especially contentious because it would effectively cut off East Jerusalem from the northern West Bank. Building plans in E1 have been frozen for years,



largely due to international opposition.

Smotrich, leader of a pro-settler party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition, said the move was also aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government," he said in a statement.