Rasa News Agency reports - "The Israeli government will announce tendersIsraeli settlements for new construction in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem which will coincide with the release of a third group of Palestinian prisoners," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The comments come days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push ahead with settlement construction despite calls for restraint by US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union.
"We will not stop, even for a moment, building our country and becoming stronger, and developing... the settlement enterprise," Netanyahu told members of his rightwing Likud party last week.
Palestinians have warned repeatedly that settlement building destroys the fragile US-brokered peace talks that resumed in July after a three-year hiatus.
The Zionist entity is due to release 26 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, in line with commitments to the US-backed peace process which also called on both sides to negotiate for nine months.
Under the terms of the agreement, 104 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed with 52 others are already released 52 in two separate batches. The fourth and final batch is due to walk free in March 2014.
Two previous rounds of prisoner releases in August and October were accompanied by Israeli announcements of fresh construction on land the Palestinians want for a future state, provoking Palestinian fury.
AFP