JERUSALEM:  (Xinhua)/FLOWERBUDNEWS :  — Israel on Tuesday gave final approval for a new settlement in E1, a highly contentious area of the occupied West Bank.

The Higher Planning Council authorized 3,753 housing units, including 3,401 for final approval in the E1 neighborhood of Maale Adumim. The project would link settlements to create a continuum separating the West Bank from East Jerusalem.

First proposed in the 1990s, the E1 plan has long been frozen due to opposition in Israel and abroad. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered it forward in 2012 and revived it again before the 2020 election.

More than 720,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, among 3.3 million Palestinians. The settlements are deemed illegal under international law, including a July 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that found Israel’s occupation unlawful.