Israel is continuing to come under pressure for its decision to build 800 new homes in a settlement outside East Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the settlement expansion threatens any future Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Mahmoud Abbas: “We are for a just and comprehensive peace, but peace and security cannot be achieved by guns of occupation and bulldozers of settlements. The Israeli decisions to annex Jerusalem and build settlements in it and in the West Bank and building the racist separation wall are null and void, and peace cannot be established on that basis.”