Israel approves hundreds more settler homes in East Jerusalem

The Jerusalem municipality approved construction of 560 new housing units in settlement neighborhoods of the city on Sunday, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony.

The permits, by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee, were given to residential projects in Ramot and Ramat Shlomo, both are settlement neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Chairman of the Committee, Meir Turgeman, told Israel Radio that the approval was "out on hold" until the end of Barack Obama administration, which disapproved Israel's expansion of the settlements.

Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War, along with the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It later annexed East Jerusalem and declared it as part of its "eternal" capital, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

source: Xinhua