Israel approves settler building plans in Palestinian West Bank city

HEBRON, West Bank, June 17 - Israel on Wednesday approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement.

Israel's finance minister announced the plans a day after saying he had scrapped a deal that gave the Palestinian municipality control over certain planning and construction around Hebron's historic core, home to a flashpoint holy shrine.

The enclave around the Cave of the Patriarchs — revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians — is home to more than 1,000 Jewish settlers who live among tens of thousands of Palestinians under complete Israeli security control.

Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Israeli troops remain deployed in the area but construction has generally required approval from the Palestinian municipality, including around the shrine.

The religious heritage of the city has made it a focal point for Israeli settlers, who are determined to expand the Jewish presence. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, said construction of a 1,000-square-metre building for a Jewish school in Hebron's historic core had been approved.

"We are continuing to build the Land of Israel in practice and to implement practical sovereignty in the settlements," Smotrich, who has said he wants to bury the idea of Palestinian statehood, said in a statement.

PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST SAYS ISRAEL AIMS TO FORCE THEM OUT OF HEBRON

U.N. bodies and most countries consider Israel's settlements in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war to be illegal under international law. Palestinians view the settlements as a primary obstacle to peace, depriving them of land they want for a future state.

Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed and saying a Jewish presence has existed there for thousands of years.

Smotrich's building announcement comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved steps earlier this year to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.

Palestinian officials said the security cabinet steps amounted to de facto annexation of West Bank land by handing powers long held by the military to Israel's civilian government.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist who lives in Hebron, said he feared Israel's dismantling of parts of the Hebron Agreement would leave Palestinian residents of the city without basic services.

He said that move was aimed at making life miserable for Pales