The E1 plan is expected to receive final approval on Aug. 20, capping off 20 years of bureaucratic wrangling. The planning committee on Aug. 6 rejected all of the petitions to stop the construction filed by rights groups and activists, according to Peace Now, which tracks settlement expansion in the West Bank and filed opposition.

Israel said Thursday it was moving forward with controversial plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, a development far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said would “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state.

France has condemned Israel’s plan to build 3,400 new homes in the occupied West Bank, calling the project a “serious violation of international law” that risks destroying any chance of a contiguous Palestinian state.