Palestine said it rules out and condemns the Israeli government's recent plan to build 2,200 new settlement units in the West Bank.  According to the statement issued on Thursday by President Mahmoud Abbas' office, it reads that the move is in violation of all international legitimacy resolutions, mainly the UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which clearly affirms the illegality of building settlements in all the Palestinian territories.   The statement added the Israeli plan contradicts the Oslo peace accords signed between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993, adding that "Any Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory will not be allowed or be legalised."

The statement also called on the United States and the international community "to work seriously and immediately to stop the Israeli persistence, which, if it continues, will increase tension and instability". Israel captured territories in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled them ever since. Official Palestinian figures said that more than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, it was reported that the Israeli civil administration's higher planning and building council will convene next week for the first time in seven months to approve the new plan to build 2,200 settlement units in the West Bank.

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