Israel Approves Hundreds of Homes in West Bank Settlements

An Israeli military planning committee approved 463 housing units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, reported Israeli news site Haaretz on Wednesday. In addition, 179 building permits were issued retroactively, legalising under Israeli law housing units that were erected in the settlement of Ofarim, Peace Now said.

“These policies have effectively given the government’s green light for the pervasive advancement of settlement activity in a new and potentially unlimited way”, the senior official warned.

According to Peace Now, Israel has promoted plans for 2,623 new units in West Bank settlements since the beginning of the year, 756 of which were retroactively legalized construction.

This, the official warned, “fundamentally undermines the prospects for a two-state solution and risks entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict”. “Since the Quartet report came out, we have seen a very significant acceleration of Israeli settlement activity that runs directly counter to the conclusions of the report”.

Mladenov said there has been a “surge in Israeli settlement-related announcements and continuing demolitions”, the latter noting the razing of family homes of Palestinian terrorists. Israel, which captured the West Bank in a 1967 war, rejected the criticism, saying Jews had lived in Judea – the biblical term for the West Bank – for thousands of years.

However, the Israeli Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council’s approval for tenders does not constitute as final approval for renewing construction.

The Israeli army has rounded up 18 Palestinians in overnight raids carried out in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, said a Palestinian NGO on Tuesday. The worldwide community regards settlements as a key obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because they are scattered throughout land the Palestinians want for an independent state.

US -backed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014 and there are no signs that they will resume any time soon.

“Gaza continues to face hard conditions even though the Palestinian people have great potential”, Piper said during a Wednesday visit to Gaza City’s Islamic University, according to a statement issued by the university.

France has also been working on its own peace initiative and hopes to convene an global conference before the end of the year.

Bulldozers, heavily escorted by Israeli troops and police officers, entered the Sur Baher neighborhood on the southeastern outskirts of East Jerusalem al-Quds and demolished a house they said had been built without a license.

Israel says the violence is fueled by Palestinian incitement.

Palestinian leaders say years of negotiations with the Israelis have not ended the occupation of the West Bank and have recently pursued an worldwide strategy.