Smotrich announced the pending approval of 3401 new housing units on Thursday in a press conference held on the site of the planned construction.

The Israeli settlement watchdog “Peace Now” blasted the advancement of the E1 plan, deeming it “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution”.

“We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed,” it said, in a statement.

“There is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the terrible war in Gaza — the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel — and it will ultimately come.

“The government’s annexation moves are taking us further away from this solution and guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed.”