The project not only aims to build thousands of homes, but it is designed to block Salfit city and prevent the Palestinians’ development in the area, the NGO denounced in a communiqué.

According to the idea, the settlement will be built west of the Ariel settlement, where some 20,000 Israeli citizens live.

Although the Ministry of Housing approved tenders for the sale of construction rights, the work may be halted by the Ministry of Defense, which has administrative control over much of the West Bank, the group founded by former soldiers pointed out.

Peace Now recently revealed that the level of construction in the settlements located in the West Bank increased 62 percent since June 2021, when the governing alliance came to power.

Although the coalition promised to maintain the status quo on the occupation-related issues, one year later, the strategies by former far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are not only to continue, but deepen them, the organization criticized.

During that period, the Executive announced plans to build 7,292 houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, compared to an annual average of 5,784 houses in the Netanyahu era from 2012 to 2020, it stressed in a report on the issue.

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