The Israeli-controlled Municipal Planning and Construction Committee in Jerusalem has presented plans for another 770 new settlement units as part of a project for 1,200 units in occupied East Jerusalem, Anadolu reported on Sunday. The latter is located in the centre of the illegal Gilo settlement in East Jerusalem and Beit Jala neighbourhood, which is adjacent to Bethlehem.

According to the Israeli news website Walla, the excavations and preparation works for the new housing units have already begun. All of Israel’s settlement-colonies in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law. Despite this, the head of the planning committee, Meir Turgeman, said that no matter what happens politically, settlement construction will continue in occupied East Jerusalem and across the West Bank.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in cooperation with his defence minister, approved the building of 800 settlement units in the largest Israeli settlement bloc of Ma’ale Adumim, located between East Jerusalem and its hinterland in the occupied West Bank.

Source: middleeastmonitor.com