JERUSALEM, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli committee approved Tuesday 1,292 new homes for settlers in a fresh bid by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to expand the settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, reported that the approvals were made by the Civil Administration's High Planning Committee, the official body that regulates the construction in the settlements.
Peace Now, which its representative was present at the meeting, released a list of the planned construction. The list shows the homes would be built across the West Bank, including 146 housing units in Nokdim, a settlement in the southern West Bank, where Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman lives.
The committee is expected to meet again on Wednesday, with the approval of about 2,000 housing units on its agenda, according to Peace Now.
The approvals came after the Israeli government vowed to bolster the expansion of the settlements in 2017, in the wake of the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who shows a less critical approach on the issue than his predecessors.
The move came only a day after the committee approved construction of 31 new housing units for settlers in the West Bank's flashpoint city of Hebron, for the first time in 15 years.
Currently, a few hundred Jewish settlers live in a heavily guarded enclave among some 200,000 Palestinians.
Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and has occupied it ever since, despite wide criticism. The settlements are illegal under international law.
