In Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government has announced plans to expand settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports Israel will build another 600 homes in the Palestinian area of Shuafat. The head of the Palestinian Authority press office, Ghassan Al-Khatib, said the Israeli move would violate international law.

Ghassan Al-Khatib: “The Israeli decision today of licensing another 600 settlement housing units in the areas between Jerusalem and Ramallah is yet another Israeli violation to the international law and another challenge to the American-led international efforts to resume a political process. It will not prevent us, the Palestinians, from continuing our efforts to build the institutions of the state in all the territories occupied in 1967 and to continue our peaceful, legal, public struggle against the Israeli settlement expansion and occupation.”