Israel weighs construction of 4,500 new settler units in West Bank

Media reports quoting Israeli sources said on Sunday that the plans for approval of 4,560 settler units in various areas of the West Bank were included on the agenda of an Israeli planning council that meets next week.

At least 1,332 are up for final approval, with the remainder still going through the preliminary clearance process.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also handles civil administration in the occupied West Bank, confirmed the regime would press ahead with its settlement expansion campaign.

"We will continue to develop the settlement of and strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory," said Smotrich.

Smotrich was sworn in last year as a member of the regime’s new far-right cabinet led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The minister and his Zionist group have a history of making incendiary remarks against the Palestinians.

In February, Smotrich called for the Palestinian town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank to be “wiped out.” Hundreds of armed Israeli settlers then attacked Huwara and the nearby villages and torched dozens of houses and cars.

Much of the international community regards the Israeli settler units in the occupied lands as illegal.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.