Israel said Thursday it was moving forward with controversial plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, a development far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said would “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state.

The E1 plan is expected to receive final approval on Aug. 20, capping off 20 years of bureaucratic wrangling. The planning committee on Aug. 6 rejected all of the petitions to stop the construction filed by rights groups and activists, according to Peace Now, which tracks settlement expansion in the West Bank and filed opposition.

(AFP) - France on Saturday condemned Israel's decision to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank and called on Israel to drop the controversial E1 project to link Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement, calling it "a serious violation of international law".