Israel Plans More Settler Units amid Anger over Palestinian Unity Gov’t

(Tasnim) – Israel is set to build 1,500 new illegal settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories amid Tel Aviv’s outrage over the formation of Palestinian unity government, reports said on Thursday.

Of the new settlements, 400 will be built in east al-Quds (Jerusalem) with the rest elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, the online edition of Haaretz newspaper reported.

Tel Aviv is expanding its settlement projects on the occupied Palestinian territories, in defiance of international calls to halt the construction.

Under international law, all of Israeli settlements are considered illegal.

Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel said it was “an appropriate Zionist response to the terrorist Palestinian government,” the paper reported.

“Israel has the right and duty to build throughout the entire country,” said the minister, who is a member of the far-right Jewish Home party which strongly backs the settlements and opposes a Palestinian state.

Israeli settlements long predate the Palestinian unity government.

Back in April, rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement to form a unity government. The new cabinet was sworn in before Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian national unity government, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday. The cabinet is led by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and has 17 ministers including 5 from the Hamas movement.

Israel’s  arch ally, the US, has announced its intention to work with the Palestinian government, prompting the Israeli regime to express strong disappointment over the issue.

On Tuesday, the United Nations hailed the formation of the Palestinian unity government.