Israeli forces have confiscated nearly 300 acres of Palestinian-owned lands in the West Bank in a bid to expand its illegal settlements in the occupied territories, Palestinian media reported.

According to the reports, Israel wants to use the seized lands to build an outpost, south of the Bethlehem district.

The Palestinian Authority's Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee has condemned the move. It has also lodged an appeal to the regime's Supreme Court.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

The Israeli regime’s continued land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied territories are threatening the entire culture of peace, deepening apartheid and destroying the so-called two-state solution, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

PressTV-‘Israel’s settlement expansion exacerbates apartheid’

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says Israel’s continued settlement expansion destroys the so-called two-state solution and deepens apartheid.

The ministry, in a statement released on Thursday, called on the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and the so-called advocates of human rights and peace to defend their eroding credibility, stop double standards and take international legal measures to hold the Tel Aviv regime accountable for its crimes.

The statement added that Israel was pressing ahead with its expansionist settlement projects, and moving to create armed settler militias in order to carry out more attacks and crimes against Palestinian people as well as their homes and property.

The ministry’s Thursday reaction came after Israeli authorities approved plans for about 2,200 settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli anti-settlement group says.

The so-called Israeli Civil Administration on Thursday approved plans for the construction of 1,451 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, and advanced plans for the construction of 837 additional units.

PressTV-Israel approves plans for 2,200 settler homes

A committee in the Israeli ministry of military affairs has advanced the plans.

Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.Source: presstv.com