Israel to fast-track construction of 1,000 housing units at site of West Bank shooting

The far-right Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu has announced that it will be fast-tracking construction of 1,000 housing units in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, close to where four Israelis were shot dead earlier this week.

A statement from Netanyahu's office released on Wednesday announced the move.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich today, agreed on the immediate advancement of planning for approximately 1,000 new residential units in Eli, adjacent to where yesterday's terrorist attack was perpetrated," read the statement.

"Our response to terror is to strike it with force, and to build our country."

The expedited approval came after four Israeli settlers were shot dead near the Eli settlement in the north of the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

The shooting came one day after an Israeli raid in Jenin that has so far left seven people dead. 

Israel earlier this month gave approval for more than 4,000 settlement units to be built in the occupied West Bank, to international anger. The prime minister's office statement did not specify whether the 1,000 homes whose planning was fast-tracked were part of these 4,000.

Netanyahu, who became prime minister of Israel again in December 2021, and some of the extreme-right ministers he appointed to cabinet have vowed to speed up construction of settler units in the occupied West Bank.

Newspaper Israel Hayom reported Thursday that Israel had approved 13,000 settlement units in the first six months of 2023. The Israeli newspaper, which did not specify where the data had come from, said this number was almost double the record previously set for the same time period.

A comparatively small 4,427 settlement units in the West Bank were advanced in all of 2022, according to the European Union.

Israel seized the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and has occupied it ever since in violation of international law. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live in the occupied territory.

While Israel liberally approves housing units for settlers, it regularly demolishes Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.