RABAT, February 29. /TASS/. Palestine condemns Israel's seizure of lands east of Jerusalem in the West Bank, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian president.

"All [Jewish] settlements are illegal and there can be no peace while [Jewish] settlements continue to exist on Palestinian territory," the WAFA news agency quoted him as saying.

"The Israeli government persists in its policy of preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, especially given the ongoing land grab and settlement expansion, which is aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," the spokesman went on to say.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel annexed a 264-hectare plot of land near the large Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

Israel's continued construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is considered a major obstacle to resolving the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli standoff. In December 2016, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 demanding that Israel immediately halt settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel said the same day that it would not comply with the resolution.