The non-governmental organization Peace Now announced Thursday that Israel had agreed to build about 100 homes in a settlement neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, as part of a project that was supposed to be implemented in 2010 but was suspended due to opposition from Joe Biden, US Vice President Barack Obama at the time.

The Israeli occupation is rushing to complete settlement projects in the occupied lands, with the US President-elect Joe Biden soon receiving the keys to the White House, succeeding Donald Trump, who refused to admit defeat, and who was known for his full support for settlement.

Israeli human rights sources confirmed that Israeli settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories doubled during Trump's rule.

Peace Now told Agence France-Presse that the Jerusalem Municipality’s Planning Committee gave Tuesday the green light to build 96 settlement units in Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem.

In March 2010, Israel announced a plan to build 1,600 settlement units on the same site that borders Palestinian neighborhoods such as Shuafat and Beit Hanina.

At the time, the occupation announced the plan in conjunction with Biden's visit, which sparked fierce American opposition at that time, and caused tension in relations with the White House for several months.

Biden provocation

Peace Now spokesman Brian Reeves said, "After relations with Biden and the United States soured in 2010 over the approval of settlement units in Ramat Shlomo, one might think that Netanyahu would at least try not to remind the new Biden administration of the incident."

"The approval to build units - in the exact same location and at a time when Biden is about to take power - contradicts Israel's interests and represents a great provocation for Biden personally," he added.

The Israeli Public Radio estimated the number of approved housing units in Ramat Shlomo at 108.

Former US President Donald Trump contradicted the decades-old US policy critical of settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Right-wing groups in Israel fear that the Biden administration will again criticize construction and settlement expansion.

Israeli public radio quoted sources in the Jerusalem municipality that the approvals for settlement construction in Ramat Shlomo were not linked to Biden's victory in the elections.

The left-wing Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" said Thursday that the municipality was deliberately pushing settlement construction during the presence of Trump, who supports settlements.

The newspaper added that "the Jerusalem municipality and the Israel Land Authority are working to determine and accelerate the approval of building plans."

According to the newspaper, "The municipality and the Land Authority expect to freeze construction as soon as the administration changes in Washington."

Biden is a former and opposed Israeli settlement project (Getty Images)

Dredging in the south of the West Bank

On the other hand, a Palestinian activist in facing Israeli settlements said, Thursday, that Israeli bulldozers began the process of leveling Palestinian lands in the southern West Bank, with the aim of building a road linking the settlements of Hebron Governorate with Jerusalem.

Yusef Abu Maria - an activist in the Popular Committees for Resisting Settlements - in the southern West Bank, told Anadolu Agency, that the sweeping works would confiscate about 1170 dunums (a dunam is equivalent to a thousand square meters), according to the plans distributed to local authorities and residents.

He indicated that the project is being implemented at the expense of the lands of the towns of Beit Ummar and Halhul.

He added that the project will facilitate the process of annexing the lands of the Hebron governorate to Israel.

The Palestine Liberation Organization announced last month that the Israeli government had agreed to build 12,159 settlement units in the West Bank this year, which is a record for its construction since 2012.

European powers condemned Israel's decision to approve the construction of thousands of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, noting that the move would "backfire" and undermine peace efforts in the region.