Israel's defence minister announced plans to build a new Jewish-only settlement in the heart of a flashpoint West Bank city on Sunday, weeks after the United States said it no longer considered such communities illegal.
The move in Hebron in the southern West Bank sparked Palestinian anger and accusations that US President Donald Trump effectively greenlighted the move.
Rightwing defence minister Naftali Bennett said the new development would double the Jewish population in the city, where around 800 settlers live guarded by hundreds of Israeli soldiers, surrounded by some 200,000 Palestinians.
Hebron is holy to both Muslims and Jews and sees frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
The Defence Ministry said Bennett had instructed departments responsible for the Israeli-occupied West Bank "to notify the Hebron municipality of planning a new Jewish neighbourhood in the wholesale market complex."
The market area is on Hebron's once-bustling Shuhada Street, which leads to a holy site where the biblical Abraham and his wife Sarah are believed to be buried.
The street is now largely closed off to Palestinians, who have long demanded that it be reopened. A statement from a settlers' organisation in Hebron hailed Bennett's decision to "bring Jewish life back to Jewish property in Hebron", labelling it a "historic act of justice" for the Jewish people.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the new project was a result of the US's November 18th decision to no longer consider Israeli settlements illegal.
That move broke with decades of international consensus that settlements are seen as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to peace, as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019
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