TEL AVIV, August 20. /TASS/. Israel has approved plans for the construction of 3,400 housing units for settlers in the E-1 area near the city of Maale Adumim to the east of Jerusalem, human rights organization Shalom Akhshav (The World is Now) said.

"Construction in the E-1 zone has finally been approved," human rights activists who monitor Israeli settlement activity said in a statement.

"Plans to build 3,401 housing units for settlers in the E-1 area are considered particularly detrimental in terms of the chances for peace and a two-state future for the two peoples, as they divide the West Bank into two parts."

Shalom Akhshav noted that "they have been trying to promote construction plans in the E-1 zone in Israel since the 1990s," but this could not be done because of pressure from the international community.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, said on August 8 that Israel now aims to "erase the Palestinian state." The politician, who concurrently oversees settlement activities in the West Bank of the Jordan River in the Israeli Defense Ministry, promised to restore several Jewish settlements withdrawn from there. On August 14, he said the project to expand the Maale Adumim settlement complex and build new housing in the E-1 zone will be resumed.

In 2016, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement activities, but Israel refused to comply.