Israel approves 464 settlement homes in West Bank

A planning committee of Israel's military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank has approved the construction of 285 new homes at Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to the settlement watchdog Peace Now.

A 234-unit nursing home in Elkana, 30 houses in Beit Arye and 20 in Givat Zeev got the green light on Tuesday.

Retrospective permits were also issued for 179 existing homes in Ofarim.

Peace Now reported that the latest planning decision by the Israeli military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank meant 2,623 housing units at settlements had been approved so far this year. The figure includes 756 illegally-built homes that have been retrospectively "legalised".

The US said it was "deeply concerned" and warned that settlement expansion posed a "very serious and growing threat" to peace with the Palestinians.

"We are deeply concerned by the government’s announcement to advance plans for these settlement units in the West Bank," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing in Washington.

"We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving unauthorised settlement units and outposts that are themselves illegal under Israeli law. These policies have effectively given the Israeli government a green light for the pervasive advancement of settlement activity in a new and potentially unlimited way."

US officials said the criticism from the US State Department marked the first time it has suggested in public that Israel may be moving toward unlimited settlement expansion on Palestinian land.

Another senior US official told the AFP news agency that settlement expansion - as well as continuing demolitions of Palestinian homes - "fundamentally undermines the prospects for a two-state solution and risks entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict".

"We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving illegal outposts and unauthorised settlement units," the official said.

"These policies have effectively given the government's green light for the pervasive advancement of settlement activity in a new and potentially unlimited way."

About 570,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

The Civil Administration decision came two days after senior UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement on Tuesday to the UN Security Council that a surge in such building, which most countries view as illegal, presented an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

"It is difficult to read in these actions a genuine intention to work towards a viable two-state solution. This appears to reinforce a policy, carried out over decades, that has enabled over half a million Israelis to settle in territory that was occupied militarily in 1967," he told the UN Security Council.

Israel reacted angrily to this criticism. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Mladenov of distorting history.

"Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace," David Keyes said, using the biblical names for the West Bank.

Responding to Mladenov's comments, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop settlement activity.

Last week, left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Israel plans to expand the Jewish settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron for the time in more than a decade.

Some 1,000 settlers, protected by Israeli troops, live among 230,000 Palestinians in Hebron and the area is a frequent flashpoint of violence.

There have been numerous rounds of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians since the early 1990s, with the last collapsing in hostility in 2014.