Israeli authorities on Wednesday approved construction of new Jewish settlement units in the West Bank while “retroactively” approving 178 housing units that have already been built in the occupied territory, Israeli media reported.
The Israeli-civil administration’s supreme committee approved 250 new homes in the Jewish-only Elkana settlement in the occupied West Bank.
An additional 50 housing units were approved in the West Bank settlements of Beit Aryeh and Givat Ze’ev, the paper reported.
The committee also “retroactively” approved 178 existing housing units in the Ofarim settlement north of Ramallah, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
Roughly 500,000 Israelis now live on more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built since the Jewish state first occupied the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
