UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel “to halt and reverse” plans to build some 800 homes “located deep inside the occupied West Bank.”
The homes to be built in the West Bank and in Jerusalem on land captured by Israel during the 1967 war are “a major obstacle to … a just, lasting and comprehensive peace,” the secretary-general said in a statement issued on Monday. The UN head was responding to the cutoff date for Israeli construction companies to put in bids for building the homes. An Israeli government committee approved the housing construction on Sunday.
In late 2020, the Israeli government opened new tenders for building the units during the final days of US President Donald Trump’s government, seen as being more friendly to Israeli housing construction in the West Bank than President-elect Joe Biden’s administration, which will take office on Wednesday.