According to Haaretz, 178 units built without permits in the 1980s received retroactive approval, while 284 were for new complexes.
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“I think that my father would be proud of me”, Jolles said.
Afterward, the Security Council scheduled a meeting for October 14 to discuss concrete steps to be taken against Israel over its building in the settlements.
The last round of US-brokered peace talks between Palestine and Israel broke down couple of years ago without any progress.
Israel has defended its settlement building, arguing that Jews have lived in the West Bank and Jerusalem – the city claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as a capital – for thousands of years.
Israeli soldiers resorted, Friday, to the use of excessive force against the nonviolent protesters in Kufur Qaddoum village, in the northern West Bank district of Qalqilia, shooting a journalist with a gas bomb in his head, and causing dozens of residents to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation.
In a briefing to the Security Council on Monday, U.N. Mideast envoy Nicolay Mladenov said that settlement expansion by the Israelis is among the biggest obstacles to peace with the Palestinians.
Israeli media say the government has advanced plans for the construction of 285 housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The committee has also advanced plans for a senior citizens’ home of 234 housing units in the settlement of Elkana.
“We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving illegal outposts and unauthorized settlements”, President Barack Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest said, reiterating Kirby’s words.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, 30 August 2016.
Palestinian Authority Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah called on the United States to compel Israel to freeze settlement construction, in a press release to Wafa, the official PA news site.
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Peace efforts have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014. Shortly after the buses arrived at the site, Palestinians began throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and burning tires at the Jewish visitors.
