Israel has added a tender for 2,167 housing units to its E1 settlement ​expansion plan, Israeli rights groups said of a project that ‌critics say endangers a future Palestinian state.

The project ​would bisect the Israeli-occupied West Bank and cut ⁠it off from East Jerusalem, fragmenting the land Palestinians hope will form the heart of a state.

The tender for ‌2,167 units is in addition to a tender for 1,234 units announced at the ‌end of August, bringing the total number of housing ‌units ⁠to 3,401, Israeli rights group Ir ⁠Amim said in a statement issued late on Wednesday (September 16, 2026).

The decision was condemned by a representative for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday ​who said the E1 tenders ‌were in violation of international law.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist in the governing right-wing coalition, has said the plan would “bury” a Palestinian state.

The ‌tender is scheduled to open for bidding ​on October 25, two days before Israel is due to hold a parliamentary election.

E1 settlement project

Ir ⁠Amim said the bidding date showed the government’s resolve to push ahead with the E1 project and “create an increasingly ‌irreversible reality on the ground ahead of the elections.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many Western states and campaign groups have opposed the E1 settlement project over concerns that it could undermine a future peace deal with ‌the Palestinians.

Britain, France and Canada banned exports from Israeli settlements in ​the West Bank last week. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has said the E1 project ⁠risks making a Palestinian state unviable.

Under Israel’s right-wing coalition ⁠government there has been a massive expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

U.N. bodies, Palestinians ‌and most countries view the settlements as illegal under international conventions — a stance disputed by Israel — and ​as a major obstacle to peace.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, a staunch supporter of West Bank settlements, on Thursday (August 13, 2026) denounced as “terror” a siege by settlers against Palestinians that drew an unsuccessful intervention by the army.

Settlers near Nablus since Sunday (August 9, 2026) have blockaded Palestinian homes, including one owned by a U.S. citizen, with residents saying they have been cut off from food and other supplies.

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem, wrote on X in response to criticism of the U.S. response.

“No excuse for such thuggish behaviour,” he wrote.

Mr. Huckabee said Israel had intervened at the request of the United States, its crucial ally.

The remarks are especially striking from Mr. Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor who in the past has embraced Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and rejected the idea of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli military on Wednesday sent in forces who took away a tent, but witnesses said settlers defiantly remained at the site with blankets.

The army announced later on Wednesday that it would send a new battalion to try to impose order.

Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians in the territory.

Israeli police said on Sunday (April 5, 2026) eight suspects were arrested after an overnight attack by Israeli civilians on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank.

“Last night, forces… were called to the village of Qusra in Samaria following a report of an assault and arson of property by Israeli civilians,” a police statement said, using a Biblical term for the northern West Bank.

“During searches, eight suspects were arrested by the forces on suspicion of being in a closed military zone and of involvement in the incident, and were taken in for questioning.”

The suspects were aged between 18 and 48, and during their searches the police also found an M-16 assault rifle issued by the army.

The Palestinian official news agency WAFA, citing local sources, reported that the assault had been carried out by Israeli settlers.

WAFA said they had operated “under the protection of Israeli forces” and “set fire to two poultry farming structures”.

A 32-year old Palestinian man was assaulted, and rescuers said he had “sustained a deep head wound”.

The news agency said the settlers had tried earlier on Saturday (April 4, 2026) evening to attack homes in the village, but residents confronted them.

Qusra, located between Nablus and Ramallah, on March 14 witnessed a deadly attack by settlers who gunned down a local resident and wounded two more, Palestinian officials said.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

There has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war, Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have said, with at least six Palestinians killed since March 1.

Settler assaults on Palestinians have persisted for years, often to the indifference of mainstream Israeli society.

But the recent surge has prompted criticism from influential rabbis, settler leaders, and even Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, who called the attacks “morally and ethically unacceptable”.