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Recently, the Israeli Cabinet approved the budget for building 34 new settlements in the West Bank.

According to it, US$434 million will be disbursed for their construction and the Israeli Cabinet also plans to build a total of 103 settlements in the coming four years.

This has sparked an escalation of tension in the West Bank.

Now the Israeli army intensifies the military offensive against the Palestinians on the pretext of “wiping out terrorists” and the Israeli settlers actively join the attack on the Palestinians under the patronage of its military. This has resulted in a scene of bloodshed almost every day in the region.

As is well known, the West Bank is an internationally recognized part of Palestinian territory.

Through the third Middle East war in June 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, East al-Quds and the Gaza Strip. And it soon started the construction of settlements there.

After Israel signed the Oslo agreement together with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, the construction of new Jewish settlements was suspended. According to the agreement, Israel is to return the Gaza Strip and West Bank to Palestine and promote its establishment of an independent state.

In disregard of it, however, Israel is pushing ahead with the illegal construction of settlements and repressing the Palestinians.

According to data available, more than 700 000 people, the equivalent of 10 percent of the Israeli population, live in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds and Israel confiscates or demolishes the buildings belonging to Palestinians on the pretext that they have no construction permits and land use documents issued by it.

Israeli attempts at expanding the settlements in the West Bank are a clear revelation of its wild ambition for territorial expansion.

The UNSC resolution adopted in 2016 clarified again that the construction of Jewish settlements is against international law and demanded a halt to the construction of all settlements.

The international community also strongly denounces Israel’s construction of settlements as a wanton violation of international law and humanitarianism.

Nevertheless, Israel unhesitatingly described the Jewish settlements as “our homeland in the West Bank” in a recent Cabinet statement.

The expanded construction of settlements of Israel gravely disturbs the peace and security in the region.