JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has approved plans to build some 2,300 new housing units in the occupied West Bank, the latest in a series of plans approved since US President Donald Trump came to power, the group said on Monday. Its supporters and the settler crowd allegedly took part in the mass incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the days of Eid al-Adha, coinciding with the memory of the so-called “ruin of the Temple”.
Peace Now said in its statement that the Planning Committee of the Israeli Ministry of War approved during its meeting, during the past two days, 2,304 housing units, going through various stages of approval procedures.
According to the movement, which closely monitors settlement construction, "approving settlement construction is part of a disastrous government policy aimed at preventing any possibility of peace, and hindering the option of a two-state solution and annexing part or all of the West Bank."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed ahead of legislative elections in April to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move sought by Israel's far-right.
The annexation of West Bank settlements is seen as destroying the two-state option, which is at the center of international efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Last week, the Israeli security cabinet approved, in a rare move, the construction of 700 Palestinian homes in a part of the West Bank under full control, in addition to 6,000 housing units. "The details of these plans have not been made public," said Hajit Afran of Peace Now. "Some of the 6,000 units announced may be included in the Defense Ministry's planning committee."
The plan, if implemented, would allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say that he is making efforts in favor of the long-awaited White House plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This comes at a time when the organizations called «Temple» supporters and the public of settlers to participate in the mass raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque, during the days of Eid al-Adha, where these calls, which were circulated on social networks, while the Israeli police continue to impose restrictions on the entry of Palestinians to the yards of the Temple Mount Military checkpoints on the roads leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque and opposite its gates.
The occupation authorities have also stepped up their actions against worshipers and endowment employees by pursuing, arresting and interrogating them, as well as removing them from Al-Aqsa. Settlement organizations called on their Israeli supporters to mass storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the next week, to start the incursions in the morning of Sunday 11-8-2019, after the end of Eid al-Adha prayer, and renewed daily until Thursday morning after next.