Settlement monitor: Israel OKs some 3,000 new settler homes

By ILAN BEN ZION and LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli settlement monitor says Israel has approved about 3,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. The decision by a government committee comes a day after the Biden administration issued its strongest condemnation yet of the proposed construction. Hagit Ofran from the anti-settlement group Peace Now says the panel OK’s the plans Wednesday. An Israeli security official said the plan had been approved, but there were no details immediately offered by the Defense Ministry. Such a move would raise friction with the United States and Europe, anger the Palestinians and test Israel’s fragile governing coalition. It was the biggest announcement of its kind since the Trump administration.