Israeli authorities have issued a tender to build 3,401 new settler units east of occupied al-Quds, despite international condemnation of Tel Aviv’s ongoing settlement expansion.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said on Wednesday that the move represents a “highly dangerous escalation” in Israel’s accelerated colonization of Palestinian lands.
According to the commission, Israeli authorities have shifted from planning and approval to active implementation of the project.
Commission head Muayyad Shaaban said the tender is part of a plan approved in August 2025.
He noted that in 2025, Israel issued tenders for 10,098 settlement units across the occupied West Bank, with over 7,000 allocated to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.
Shaaban warned that the tender effectively severs occupied al-Quds from its Palestinian surroundings and links the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to the city.
He said the project undermines any realistic prospect of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state and aims to fundamentally alter the city’s demographic and geographic landscape.
Israel’s anti-settlement organization Peace Now condemned the tender as “political recklessness” that erodes the possibility of a political solution.
It said the settlement building seeks to entrench irreversible facts on the ground that would lead towards an "apartheid-like system."
Peace Now noted that 2025 ended with a record 9,629 settlement units approved, including more than 6,700 in Ma’ale Adumim, exceeding the total published tenders of the previous six years combined.
The organization added that the tenders stem from a framework agreement signed in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between Israeli authorities and the Ma’ale Adumim municipality.
Since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967, more than 700,000 Israeli settlers have settled in over 279 settlements across the occupied territories.
While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, the occupying regime has stepped up settlement expansion in blatant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.
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