Israel on Monday approved plans to build thousands of new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank - a move that threatened to worsen increasingly strained relations with the United States.
Multiple Israeli media outlets said the Defense Ministry planning committee that oversees settlement construction approved over 5,000 new settlement homes. The units are at various stages of planning, and it was not immediately clear when construction would begin. The ministry did not immediately comment.
The Biden Administration has been increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Israel's settlement policies. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the settlements "an obstacle to the horizon of hope we seek" in a speech to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
(Agencies)