UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada condemn Israel's West Bank settlement project

On Wednesday, Israel’s housing ministry released a tender for 1,234 of the 3,401 housing units that had been approved by Israeli authorities in August. The tender encompasses roughly 12 square kilometres (4.6 square miles) of land situated between East Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement. At the unveiling of the plan, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, described as an ultranationalist and settler, declared that “the thought of a Palestinian authority was being erased.” The bidding deadline is set for 19 October, only a few days before Israel’s nationwide vote scheduled for 27 October, a timing that critics say will make it substantially more difficult for any future Palestinian authority to overturn the tender. Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has constructed approximately 160 settlements that now house about 700,000 Jewish residents in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—territories Palestinians seek, alongside Gaza, for a future sovereign state. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live in the same area. Despite broad international opposition, successive Israeli governments have permitted settlement expansion to continue. Growth has accelerated markedly since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in late 2022, leading a right‑wing, pro‑settler coalition, and coinciding with the start of the Gaza war after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. Opponents of the E1 project warn that its implementation would effectively obstruct the formation of a Palestinian state by severing the northern West Bank from the southern portion and hindering the development of a contiguous Palestinian territorial unit linking Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.