Israeli soldiers walk during an army operation near the settlement of Elon Moreh in the occupied West Bank near Nablus on Apr 11, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)
RAMALLAH — Palestinian authorities slammed on Friday a new Israeli plan to expand settlement in East Jerusalem and allocate funds for building roads for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement that deepening and expanding settlements in the Palestinian territories "is a deliberate Israeli sabotage of any opportunity to embody the Palestinian state on the ground."
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"The Israeli settlement is illegal in all its forms, whether building settlement units in Jerusalem, allocating millions of dollars to build settlement roads, or seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank," it said.
Israel Radio reported on Wednesday that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed with Transport Minister Miri Regev to allocate 1 billion US dollar budget to finance road construction in the West Bank.