Israel adds tender for 2,167 housing units to settlement expansion plan, rights groups say
Israel has announced new tenders for over 2,000 housing units in the E1 settlement area of the West Bank. Critics and international observers argue this expansion threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state and violates international law.
Why it matters
The expansion of settlements in the West Bank remains a primary obstacle to the two-state solution and a source of significant geopolitical tension.
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.
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