The illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim in the occupied West Bank (file photo)<\/p>\n
The Israeli regime is going ahead with plans to build more than 1,000 homes in two illegal settlements deep in the West Bank in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.\n<\/p>\n
A regime spokesman said on Thursday that the new homes will be built in Itamar and Bruchin settlements, located in an area of the West Bank which Israel occupied in 1967.\n<\/p>\n
Nabil Shaath, an adviser the acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel’s latest move shows that the Tel Aviv regime was committed to peace.\n<\/p>\n
“This Israeli government is destroying the two-state solution and the prospects of a peace deal in deeds and words,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
Last month, the Israeli settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem reported that Tel Aviv plans to build 1,000 new settler units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).\n<\/p>\n
The NGO said that contracts for 300 homes in the northeastern settlement of Ramot were signed and another 797 plots were to be offered for sale in the southern settlement of Gilo.\n<\/p>\n
Gilo is also one of five major settlements in East al-Quds that were established by the Israeli regime following the Six-Day War of 1967.\n<\/p>\n
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts made to establish peace in the Middle East.\n<\/p>\n
A report released last month revealed that the Israeli regime confiscated 1,977 acres of the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank for its settlement activity during 2012.\n<\/p>\n
The settlements, which cover an area roughly equal to 1,035 soccer fields and twice as big as New York’s Central Park, were approved by \u00c5\u201cmilitary order,\u201d the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on May 27.\n<\/p>\n
The report said most of the new settlements were located deep in the Palestinian-inhabited West Bank.\n<\/p>\n
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.\n<\/p>\n
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the war of 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.\n<\/p>\n
MN\/HN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n