By Burak Dag
ANKARA (AA) - Turkiye on Friday condemned Israel's recent approval of plans to expand illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and to retroactively legalize two settlements.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry condemned the approval of 25 separate projects involving the construction of 4,427 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank on Thursday and to legalize the settlements "Mitzpeh Dani" and "Oz V'agon," which had been "considered illegal even under Israeli laws."
These "one-sided" steps escalate tensions in the region and harm the groundwork for peace, it noted.
The statement also urged Israel to put an end to these steps, which violate international law and established UN parameters, jeopardizing the two-state solution process.
The Foreign Ministry also said Turkiye expects the events that led to the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and injury of another reporter in the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday to be clarified through an open, impartial, and comprehensive investigation and for those responsible to be brought to justice as soon as possible.
Abu Akleh, 51, served as one of Al Jazeera's elite journalists covering the situation across the occupied Palestinian territories over the past two and a half decades.
Al Jazeera accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing its veteran journalist Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.