LOC12:55
09:55 GMT
RAMALLAH, Jan 7 (KUNA) -- Head of the Palestinian Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission Minister Moayyad Shaaban, said on Wednesday that occupation authorities, through the so-called Israel Land Authority, issued a major tender to build 3,401 settlement units in the E1 area east of occupied Jerusalem.
In a press statement, Shaaban said the move marks an extremely dangerous development amid the accelerating assault on Palestinian land through colonial settlement schemes.
He stressed that the occupation has moved from the planning and approval stage to actual implementation of the E1 project, one of the most dangerous settlement plans that had been formally frozen for three decades.
Shaaban said the tender completes the E1 plan approved in August last year after nearly 30 years of delay due to international pressure.
He warned that launching tenders would effectively sever Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and link the Ma'ale Adumim settlement to the city under the "Greater Jerusalem" project, undermining any realistic possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.
Shaaban noted that 2025 has witnessed an unprecedented surge in settlement tenders, totaling about 10,098 units.
The E1 plan spans 12,000 dunums and would cut the West Bank in two, isolating Jerusalem and making natural geographic continuity impossible. (end)
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