The announcement appears to be a direct response to France, Britain, Canada and Australia announcing their intentions to recognise a Palestinian state at a United Nations summit next month.

Smotrich said on Wednesday that he planned to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 housing units for Israeli settlers, in an area that aims to connect existing settlements in Maale Adumim in the occupied West Bank with occupied East Jerusalem.

“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” the finance minister said.