By Afra Aksoy and Hamdi Yildiz
JERUSALEM (AA): Israel will construct more than 20,000 new illegal houses in occupied East Jerusalem in the next five years, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
“We signed an agreement in the framework of construction of 23,000 new housing units in Jerusalem with an investment of one billion shekel ($276 million),” Netanyahu announced on social media accounts.
He claimed Jerusalem was not an accommodation unit, but Israel’s “capital”.
Israeli Channel 7 reported the agreement was inked by the Ministry of Finance, Israel Land Administration and Municipality of Jerusalem with the attendance of Netanyahu.
According to the agreement, neighborhoods in Old and New Jerusalem will be developed, a large area will be allocated for office space and investment in infrastructure.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
Else where, according to Ma’an News Israeli settlers set up illegal mobile home and razed 15 dunams of Palestinian lands in southern Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, on Sunday.
Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that Israeli settlers set up 20 mobile homes in the Huwwara village to expand the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the village’s southern side.
Daghlas added that Israeli settlers razed more than 15 dunams of Palestinian land in the Jalud village, pointing out that Israeli settlers installed a new water line in the area for settlement outposts and moved razed dirt to nearby outposts.
Since the occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967, between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis have moved into Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, in violation of international law.
[Archive photo: Israeli illegal settlements in occupied Beitar_Ilit, 10km south of Jerusalem. Creative Commons]