Overview

• Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled plans to build about 3,515 homes in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, aiming to double Ma’ale Adumim’s population by roughly 35,000 residents
• A planning subcommittee has cleared key resource requests and the project now awaits imminent military and administrative sign-off before infrastructure work can start
• The United Nations and European Union condemned the expansion as illegal under international law that severs West Bank continuity and undermines a two-state framework
• Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the development an escalation of settler violence and a barrier to Palestinian statehood
• Human rights groups warn the plan would displace Palestinian Bedouin communities, fragment the West Bank and include a segregated road bypassing Jerusalem