The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates denounced in a statement the new expansionist plan which envisages the construction of a large bus station for Jewish settlers near the West Bank city of Nablus.

The work aims to facilitate the movement of settlers and connect the road network built for them, which entailed the illegal expropriation of Palestinian territories, the document stressed.

The Ministry recalled that Israel recently began the implementation of two other settlement projects to the south and north of East Jerusalem, with the aim of isolating that city from the rest of the West Bank.

These actions are part of Tel Aviv’s attempts to annex and Judaize most of the West Bank and thus sabotage any chance of establishing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, it warned.

The Foreign Ministry held the Israeli government, headed by Naftali Bennett, responsible for the expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands and its disastrous consequences for the opportunity to resolve the conflict by political means.

According to official Palestinian data, Israel built more than 31,000 homes in the 144 settlements located in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2004 and constructed another 139 outposts for future settlements.

mh/jcm/rob.