Israel signed a 8.5 billion-shekel ($2.3 billion) framework agreement to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the construction of 12,000 new housing units and major infrastructure projects, according to Israeli media.

Israel’s Channel 14 described the agreement as a “giant” step aimed at expanding settlements and “changing the face of the region.”

The agreement was signed at an official ceremony attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Israel Land Authority Director General Yehuda Eliyahu and Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, which oversees numerous Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank.

The report said the agreement would “give significant momentum” to the process of expanding settlements in the region and modernising their infrastructure.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now, around 500,000 Israeli occupiers live in illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, in addition to about 250,000 living in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

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The UN has repeatedly affirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, warning that they undermine prospects for a two-state solution.

Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, based on international resolutions that do not recognise Israel’s 1967 occupation or its 1980 annexation of the city.