Colonies on the territory, driven by Israeli rights, are considered a major obstacle to peace.
Israel made a tender for the construction of nearly 1,000 additional settlers in occupied West Bank, an Israeli NGO reported.
By refering to the document, The Peace Now Watchdog said on Sunday that the development of 974 new housing units was planned in the EFRAT colony near Jerusalem.
The colony in the West Bank is pushed by the Israeli right and supported by the Israeli government, but is considered a major obstacle to peace by the Palestinians and many on an international scale.
The project would extend the The population of the EFRAT colony, located about 12 km (7.5 miles) southwest of Jerusalem, by around 40% and still blocks the development of the Palestinian city near Bethlehem, said Peace.
Hagit ofran, who directs the surveillance of the group’s regulations, said that construction could start after the contract process and the provision of permits, which could take another year at least.
Israel occupied the West Bank, the Gaza and East Jerusalem Strip in the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. The colonies were illegal under international law.
However, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, provided unprecedented support to the Israeli colonies during his first mandate, in particular the expansion of the colony of Givat Hamatos, which divided parts of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians.
Trump is a Republican, but Israel has also constantly widened the regulations during democratic administrations, which were more critical but rarely took any measure to limit them.
In a statement on Monday, the Israeli rights group IR AMIM said that the inauguration of Trump on January 20 had inaugurated a wave of expansion of settlement.
“In parallel, the Israeli government has intensified its Palestinian travel campaign,” said IR AMIM researcher Aviv Tatarsky.
“Since the beginning of 2025, the Israeli authorities have demolished 27 structures in East Jerusalem, including 18 residential units, in what seems to be a systematic effort to remove the Palestinians from their home while simultaneously expanding Israeli establishments.”
Israel has built much more than 100 colonies through the West Bank, ranging from the outposts to the top of a hill to fully developed communities that resemble small cities and the suburbs with apartment buildings, shopping centers and parks .
More than 500,000 settlers live in the occupied West Bank, which houses around three million Palestinians.
The settlers have Israeli citizenship while the Palestinians live under a military regime with the Palestinian authority administering population centers.
The main human rights groups have described the situation like apartheid, an allegation rejected by the Israeli government, which considers the West Bank as the historic and biblical heart of the Jewish people and is opposed to the Palestinian State.
The attacks of settlers against the Palestinians in the West Bank have increased since the start of the Gaza War on October 7, 2023, with an average of four incidents of violence of the colonists occurring daily.