UK summons Israeli ambassador over controversial settlement plan in West Bank

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The UK on Thursday summoned Israel's ambassador to protest the approval of the controversial E1 settlement plan in the occupied West Bank.

The Foreign Office said Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was summoned in response to the Israeli Higher Planning Committee’s decision to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, East of Jerusalem.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said that, along with 21 international partners, the UK has condemned this decision in the strongest terms.

"If implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution," said the statement.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has approved the construction of 3,401 settler units in Ma'ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and 3,515 more in surrounding areas. The project aims to split the West Bank into two parts, severing connections between its northern and southern cities and isolating East Jerusalem.