Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon have given the go-ahead for the construction of hundreds of new housing units in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian report.

    The Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) National Bureau for Defending Lands and Resisting Settlement said in its weekly report that the endorsement would give the green light for the Higher Planning Council of the occupation military's so-called "civil administration" to press ahead with the new settlement scheme.

    It involves building 299 homes in at least 5 settlements, including 54 in the settlement of Har Bracha in the northern West Bank, where a number of members of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) from the ruling right-wing Likud Party live, said the bureau.

    It said that since the start of the year, plans had been forwarded for building 674 settler homes, and that the latest plan would raise the total number to 973, it said.

Source: QNA