Israel's plan to build new settlements in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the international community warning that the project could further undermine the territorial continuity needed for a future Palestinian state.

E1 covers about 12 square kilometers between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim, one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel has planned to build settlements there since the 1990s, but the project has repeatedly been delayed amid international pressure.

On August 18, Israeli authorities opened a tender for 1,234 of the 3,401 housing units approved by the Israeli government last August.

The significance of E1 lies in its location. The area connects East Jerusalem with Maale Adumim. Building settlements there would link existing Israeli settlements, further fragmenting the West Bank and severing the territorial connection between East Jerusalem and other Palestinian areas.

This is why the project is widely seen as a threat to the two-state solution. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said it would undermine prospects for an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas said the E1 plan violates international law and UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Adopted in 2016, the resolution calls on Israel to "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities" in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip form a geographic and political entity and constitute the occupied Palestinian territory, Abbas said, adding that settlement expansion and annexation cannot create legal rights or change the territory's legal status.

Why has the plan triggered international condemnation?

The plan has triggered strong international condemnation, particularly from Europe and the Middle East.

On August 20, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada condemned the E1 tender as "unacceptable," saying it would fragment the West Bank, damage Palestinian territorial continuity and undermine the prospects of a two-state solution.

The European response reflects growing concern that continued settlement expansion could make a negotiated two-state solution increasingly difficult to implement.

Cui Hongjian, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University's Academy of Regional and Global Governance, said the EU wants to prevent further escalation of Israel's actions in the West Bank, which could widen the conflict involving Israel, Iran and the United States and put European interests more directly at risk.

On August 21, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also condemned the E1 plan.

The European and Middle Eastern reactions both reflect the same concern: continued settlement expansion could create permanent "facts on the ground," undermine prospects for a Palestinian state and further fuel conflict in the region.

Israel's expanding settlements and settler violence

The West Bank was captured by Israel in the 1967 war and has remained under Israeli control since then. Under international law, Israel is prohibited from establishing settlements in the territory it occupies. The BBC reported that Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Israelis in the West Bank since 1967.

E1 is part of a broader expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank.

The expansion has been accompanied by growing settler violence against Palestinians. Most recently, in August, Israeli settlers besieged three Palestinian homes in the West Bank village of Qusra for several days, cutting off water and electricity and preventing residents from leaving. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, also condemned the attackers as "terrorists."

UN figures show the scale of the violence. Since the beginning of 2026, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had documented more than 1,380 settler-related incidents have been documented, affecting over 250 Palestinian communities and averaging about 6.6 incidents per day.

During the same period, around 900 Palestinians had been injured in settler attacks, while more than 2,300 had been displaced by settler attacks and related access restrictions.

OCHA also reported that 76 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers or died of wounds sustained earlier since the beginning of 2026.

The violence has involved physical assaults as well as attacks on homes, farmland, water systems and other livelihood infrastructure.

Against this backdrop, the E1 project goes beyond the construction of new homes. Settlement expansion, infrastructure development, restrictions on Palestinian communities and settler violence are changing the geography of the West Bank, making a geographically viable Palestinian state increasingly difficult.