Israel to move ahead with 1,000 new homes in Eli settlement

Israel plans 1,000 new homes for Eli settlement in the occupied West Bank in a potential doubling of its population in response to a Palestinian gun attack nearby that killed four people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Wednesday.

The statement did not make clear if the plan included homes previously approved for construction, nor detail the timetable.

The West Bank is among areas where Palestinians want to establish an independent state, and which has seen increasing spasms of violence with US-sponsored peacemaking efforts stalled for almost a decade.

Israel has peppered the West Bank with settlements that most world powers view as illegal. Israel disputes this, deeming the land a biblical birthright and security bulwark. Washington has urged its ally not to proceed with settlement projects in the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

On Tuesday, two Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli civilians outside Eli. The Islamist group, which preaches Israel's destruction, called the attack retaliation for a deadly Israeli raid elsewhere in the West Bank on Monday.

"Our response to terrorism is to strike at it mightily and build up our land," the statement from Netanyahu's office said.

It said Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant "agreed to move ahead immediately" with the new Eli homes.

Settlement watchdog group Peace Now said Eli now has around 1,000 homes, meaning Wednesday's announcement could spell a doubling of its population. It was unclear if the plan included 500 new Eli homes that had been scheduled to come up for approval next week, Peace Now official Yonathan Mizrahi said.

The total settlement population in the West Bank has grown to 465,400, among 2.58 million Palestinians, according to Peace Now.