Ministers in the Israeli government have in recent months pushed for more rapid development of these settlements, explicitly as a rebuke to claims of Palestinian sovereignty.

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.

This comes after Smotrich announced his approval for settlements in the E1 area. Germany on Friday called on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank after Israel's far-right finance minister said work would start on a plan for thousands of home that would divide the Palestinian territory.