Israeli authorities have approved more than 1,100 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians seek as part of their future state, the Peace Now NGO said Thursday.
The approvals were given on Wednesday by a defense ministry committee with authority over settlement construction.
Some 352 of the homes received final approval, while the others are at an earlier stage in the process, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, which monitors settlement building, told Agence France Presse.
A total of 1,122 housing units were advanced, including seven already existing homes given retroactive approval.
According to Ofran, the majority of the approvals are for settlements deep in the West Bank that Israel would likely need to evacuate as part of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It's a part of the general trend that the government is doing, which is to build all over the West Bank, even more in places that Israel would need to evict, and in this way to torpedo the possibility for a two-state solution," she said.
A shooting that killed an Israeli settler on Tuesday in the West Bank led to fresh calls for further settlement building, though the plans approved on Wednesday were already in the works.
According to Peace Now, 6,742 housing projects were approved in the settlements last year, the highest figure since 2013.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and has since built there dozens of settlements, which are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
