Israeli officials are planning to construct hundreds of new housing units in East Jerusalem al-Quds irrespective of international outcry against the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied Palestinian territories. RNA - Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported on Thursday that 460 settler units will be constructed in Pisgat Ze'ev settlement, while another 345 will be built in Ramot neighborhood in the northern part of East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The report added that plans for the construction of the settler units had been approved two years ago.
Israeli settlers storm agricultural land in Ramallah
Meanwhile, dozens of extremist Jewish settlers have stormed an agricultural land in the al-Tira neighborhood of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem al-Quds.
An informed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the settlers performed prayers as well as acts deemed provocative by Palestinians, triggering clashes with local residents.
Israeli forces fired teargas canisters and stun grenades to disperse the crowd. There were no reports of casualties.
About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
Trump backtracked on Washington’s support for a “two-state solution” in 2017, saying he would support any solution favored by both sides.
“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” the US president said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on February 15, 2017.