Israeli anti-settler organization Peace Now denounced the creation of a new settlement, announced earlier by the Gush Etzion regional council in the south of the occupied West Bank.
Yaron Rosental, the president of the Gush Etzion council, on Thursday morning announced the creation of a "new locality" near Bethlehem, AFP reported.
"Tonight, we established a new locality at Shdema, near Bethlehem. For 5,000 years, the Jews have prayed to return to Bethlehem and today we have achieved that," Rosental said in a video circulated by his office.
A spokesman for the regional council confirmed to AFP that three mobile homes had been set up in the area and that families would move in during the weekend.=
Peace Now in a statement said: "The new outpost is intended to choke the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour and block its development.
"There is no limit to the settlers' audacity in establishing outposts and creating facts on the ground, utilising public funds while undermining Israel's prospects for peace and a two-state solution."
The Gush Etzion region has in recent days seen multiple violent incidents involving settlers and Palestinian residents.
The flare-up follows the dismantling of a settler outpost by Israeli authorities that regard it as illegal.
All settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.
