Israel's decision to open tenders for around 1,200 settlement homes in the highly sensitive E1 area of the occupied West Bank has drawn sharp condemnation from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, who jointly called the move "unacceptable" and demanded it be retracted immediately. The E1 site, located between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim, has long been seen as pivotal because building there would split the West Bank in two and cut off East Jerusalem, dealing a severe blow to any future two-state solution. The UN secretary-general separately described the plan as an "existential threat" to a contiguous Palestinian state.

Israel's housing ministry issued the tender on Wednesday for 1,234 of the 3,401 housing units approved by the government last August, despite a legal challenge from Bedouin Palestinian residents and Israeli peace groups. The bidding deadline of 19 October falls shortly before Israel's general election on 27 October, making it harder for any future government to reverse the tenders. Israel has built roughly 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, alongside an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians, with expansion accelerating since Benjamin Netanyahu's pro-settler coalition returned to power in 2022 and since the Gaza war began in 2023.