Israeli authorities have approved plans to build thousands of new settler units in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds, defying international condemnation of illegal settlement growth and land grab activities in the Palestinian territories.

Only a few days after endorsing the construction of another 3,000 units, the so-called Israeli Supreme Planning and Building Council reportedly approved plans to build an additional 4,000 units.

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In just two days, the plans for the 7,287 settlement homes were authorized, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. According to the publication, this is the most settler units that have been approved since 2021.

The additional settler units will be constructed in the "Ma'ale Adumim", "Kokhav Ya'akov", "Giv'at Ze'ev", "Ma'ale Amos", and "Eliezer" settlements.

'No legal validity' 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is profoundly concerned about the Israeli occupation's declaration of plans to build over 7,000 new settler units, according to a spokesperson for the UN chief, which would cut the connection between the northern and southern sectors of the occupied West Bank.

“Settlements have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions. They further entrench Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian territory and undermine the possibility of a viable and contiguous Palestinian State as part of a negotiated two-state solution,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a daily press briefing on Friday.

Over 600,000 Israelis reside in more than 230 settlements established since the Israeli 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The international community regards the settlements, hundreds of which have been constructed across the West Bank since occupying the territory in 1967, as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on occupied territory.

In several resolutions, the UN Security Council has condemned Israeli settlement activities in the occupied areas. The occupation's unabated building campaign comes at a time when Palestinians are being subjected to increasingly brutal raids by the occupation in the occupied territories, with innocent Palestinians being violently killed on a daily basis.