Israel to build 1,500 settlement units in response to new Palestinian unity government

Israel’s Housing Ministry announced on Thursday morning tenders for 1,500 new housing units in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to Israeli news reports, Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel told officials in his ministry and settlement leaders that 1,100 new settlement units would be built in the West Bank and 400 in East Jerusalem.

However, different sources said the number of planned new settlement units is far beyond 1,500. The Jewish Press cited 3,000 new housing units to be built in the settlements of Ramat Shlomo and Givat Ze’ev in Jerusalem, and Efrat, Beitar Ilit, Adam and other settlements in the West Bank.

The Associated Press quoted Ariel as saying that the new settlement activities are in response to the formation of the new Palestinian unity government sworn in on Monday, which is the outcome of a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas.

Ariel called the move a “fitting Zionist response to the formation of a Palestinian terror government,” adding that this was “just the beginning”.

Israel has pledged to punish the new Palestinian unity government and publicly called for Western countries not to cooperate with it. But despite Israeli efforts, the new government led by independent Palestinian technocrats received massive international backing, including from the US, EU, UN, India, Russia, China and Turkey, in addition to many other countries.