Overview

• Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich authorized tenders for roughly 3,401 housing units in the E1 zone linking Ma’ale Adumim to East Jerusalem.
• The Israeli Supreme Planning Council is set to hold a final hearing on August 20 before formal approvals and preparatory work can begin.
• The European Union, Germany and the United Nations human rights office have denounced the project as illegal under international law and warned it would doom a viable Palestinian state.
• Analysts and Palestinian officials warn construction in E1 will sever direct territorial continuity between East Jerusalem and the northern West Bank, undermining the geographic basis for a two-state solution.
• Reports have surfaced of overnight settler attacks in West Bank villages such as Susya and Atara, raising concerns over escalating violence and humanitarian access.