"Israel Today" newspaper said that plans have been approved to build 18,515 housing units in West Bank settlements during the current year, noting that it is the largest number of housing units approved in one year.

The newspaper pointed out that the Supreme Planning Council approved - yesterday, Wednesday - the construction of 3,500 additional housing units in the “Maale Adumim”, “Efrat” and “Kedar” settlements.

It explained that the council meeting came at a symbolic time, as it was held a year after the transfer from the civil authorities in the West Bank to the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, after he assumed a new position in the Ministry of Defense, in addition to the finance portfolio.

"Israel Today" quoted Smotrich as saying that settlement will continue to expand, and that settlement in the West Bank is "Israel's security belt," as he put it.

The Israeli minister added that in parallel with the approval to build housing units, new settlement projects are being promoted - on an unprecedented scale - including the construction of roads in the West Bank.

The Israeli newspaper reported statements by a number of settler leaders in the West Bank in which they praised the acceleration of the pace of settlement in the West Bank in light of the war on the Gaza Strip, and they thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Defense Minister Yoav Galant.