How Israel is expanding settlements in drive to reshape West Bank

It was during a ceremony at a settlement in the occupied West Bank last September that Israel's prime minister made his intentions clear. "We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state," said Benjamin Netanyahu. "This place belongs to us."

He was signing an agreement to push ahead with the expansion of a settlement in an area known as E1, just to the east of Jerusalem.

In recent days, the opening up of tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes on the strategically important land has brought widespread condemnation.

All settlements are illegal under international law and, under global pressure, Israel held off for decades on plans to build in the area.

After the recent announcement, the UN secretary general said they posed an "existential threat" to a future Palestinian state, while a joint statement by the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada said the plans were "unacceptable" and would "drive a wedge through the West Bank", a sentiment echoed by the European Union.

That was welcomed by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, who called for the signatories to take "concrete measures to halt the implementation of the E1 plan".

Along with Gaza and the Golan Heights, the West Bank was captured during the 1967 war against a coalition of Arab states. Israel has controlled it ever since.

As occupied land, international law prohibits Israel from settling it. Despite that, the number of Israelis living there has grown over the years. Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since 1967.

The development would in effect divide the West Bank in two and isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory. Opponents of the project have warned that it would effectively block the establishment of a Palestinian state because it would cut off the north of the West Bank from the south, and prevent the development in the centre of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog that has challenged the plans in court, said: "The government is trying to sign contracts with contractors before the (upcoming October) elections so that it will be much harder for the next government to cancel the construction."

It is not just settlements that have been expanding. Over the last few years, much of the responsibility for the administration of the West Bank has shifted from military control to a civilian authority headed by Bezalel Smotrich, the country's far right finance minister.

This has led to a huge increase in the numbers of roads that cross the West Bank, connecting settlements but bisecting Palestinian towns and villages, something he said "ensures that the settlements will not remain on paper - but will be established on the ground".

In May of this year, the Israeli government announced more than a billion shekels ($360m; £246m) of funding for new road construction in the West Bank, with the intention of "strengthening of their grip on the territory", according to an official press release.