Jerusalem: Israeli authorities have issued a tender to construct 3,401 new settler homes in the E1 area east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian government body announced on Wednesday. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission has expressed concerns that this development could isolate East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and hinder the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.
According to Anadolu Agency - English, the E1 area is a strategic corridor in East Jerusalem that Israel plans to use to connect the occupied city with nearby settlements, such as Maale Adumim, through land confiscation and new construction. Palestinians argue that this plan would obstruct natural Palestinian urban expansion.
Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Commission, stated that the tender, issued by Israel's Land Authority, signifies the beginning of a project that had been paused for nearly thirty years due to international pressure. He noted that the approval procedures for the plan were completed in August 2025. Shaaban emphasized that the move intends to fully separate Jerusalem from its Palestinian hinterland, fragment the West Bank, and restrict Palestinian urban growth east of Jerusalem, thereby altering the city's geographic and demographic landscape.
Shaaban also noted that in 2025, Israel issued tenders for 10,098 settlement units across the occupied West Bank, with more than 7,000 allocated to the Maale Adumim settlement. Israel's left-wing settlement watchdog, Peace Now, condemned the E1 tender as 'political recklessness' undermining hopes for a political solution and a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians. The group warned that the settlement building in E1 aims to establish irreversible facts on the ground that could lead to a single state, resembling an apartheid-like system.
Peace Now reported that 2025 concluded with a record 9,629 settlement homes, including over 6,700 units in Maale Adumim, surpassing the total published tenders of the previous six years combined. The organization added that these tenders result from a government framework agreement signed in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between the Israeli government and the Maale Adumim municipality.
Approximately 750,000 Israeli settlers reside in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, with about 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Palestinian officials cite these figures as evidence of ongoing settler violence aimed at displacing Palestinians forcibly. For decades, the Palestinian Authority has urged the international community to pressure Israel into halting settlement expansion, which the United Nations deems illegal, warning that any formal annexation of the West Bank would end prospects for a two-state solution envisioned in UN resolutions.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.