An anti-settlement group, Peace Now, said Israel plans to build 24,000 more homes in the occupied West Bank possibly foregoing any hope of peace talks between Palestine and Israel, Reuters reported.
According to Peace Now, which watches over the occupied land Palestinians want for a state, the Israeli Housing Ministry issued tenders to draw blueprints of construction plans, but added no building was currently taking place, Reuters reported.
"With tenders for planning, what we are seeing is a very early stage that can open the door for construction not in the short term, but several years down the road," Peace Now said in a statement, Reuters reported.
According to the statement, the tenders for housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are true indicators of where the Israeli government stands with negotiations and claims of stopping construction from happening, according to Reuters.
Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer said the 19,786 units set to be constructed in the West Bank with 4,000 more in East Jerusalem, is the largest tender Israel has ever issued, AFP reported.
"The housing ministry announced tenders for the planning of 20,000 settler homes," Oppenheimer said, adding that "this is a record."
According to the tenders, one of the construction sites is located in the sensitive area between Jerusalem and Ramallah, where the Palestinian seat of government resides, and will likely prohibit any further effort to reach an agreement in the future, Reuters reported.
"The issuing of tenders for planning is unequivocal evidence that Netanyahu intends to prevent the real chances of a negotiated agreement and a two-state solution," Peace Now said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The tender also included planning for 1,200 settler homes to be added in the E-1 area near Jerusalem where all previous building projects had been suspended due to pressure imposed by the United States, even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he opposed the construction of such homes and has frozen the plans, the AFP reported.
A spokesperson for the Housing Ministry confirmed the new tenders have been issued, but said only small percentages of blueprints actually become reality, AFP reported.
The tenders were published by a government website before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited last week, according to AFP. When Kerry arrived to persuade both sides into finding a peaceful solution, Palestinian officials expressed their anger over previously announced construction for 3,500 homes in the West Bank area.
After Kerry left, Palestinian officials said that no peace deal is better than a bad peace deal, and that Palestine would not take part of any deal which includes construction.
"In the absence of political will from the Israeli side to take the negotiations seriously, we believe that it is better not to reach a deal than to reach a bad deal," negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh said in a statement Monday, the AFP reported.
