Settlers shoot two Palestinians after Israel approves new homes

ISRAELI settlers shot and seriously wounded two Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, the day after Israel’s new far-right government approved plans for 7,000 new settlement homes in the occupied territory.

Armed settlers descended on the village of Qusra, near Nablus, and opened fire in an unprovoked shooting, according to Ghassan Douglas, the Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlements in the region.

On Thursday, the Israeli government approved the largest ever single tranche of settlement homes, despite growing international opposition to new construction on occupied territory.

“We see this as a very big move toward annexation,” Ziv Stahl, director of Yesh Din, which works to protect the human rights of Palestinians, said. “Cementing the existence of these places blocks any hope for Palestinians to ever get their land back.” On Monday, the UN Security Council criticised Israeli settlement construction on occupied land that is claimed by the Palestinians, saying a decision to retroactively recognise outposts was “imperilling the viability of the two-state solution based on the 1967 lines”.

The statement was the first time in six years the US had not used its veto power to block UN action against Israel. But it reportedly blocked a tougher resolution after Israel said it would refrain from unilateral action for six months.

Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, said an Israeli government planning committee had scheduled a meeting next month to discuss plans to develop a strategic area east of Jerusalem known as E1.

The US in the past has blocked the project, which would largely bisect the West Bank and which critics say would make it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.

“We view the expansion of settlements as an obstacle to peace that undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution,” said a US National Security Council statement.

The international community considers settlement construction illegal. More than 700,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem – captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.

The planned construction is likely to add to already heightened tensions following an Israeli military raid that killed 11 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday.

Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in cities across the West Bank and Gaza yesterday in protest against the killing. In Gaza, there were reports of Palestinians heading to the Israel border fence with to protest.

The demonstrators appeared to be responding to a call to action from the Lion’s Den, a small but influential Palestinian militant group based in the cities of Jenin and Nablus.