LONDON (Reuters) -British foreign minister David Lammy said Israeli plans to develop a settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem marked a breach of international law and must be stopped immediately.

Israel appears poised to grant formal planning approval for the long-stalled E1 settlement project — a highly contentious plan to build over 3,400 housing units in the occupied West Bank, according to

This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize," Bezalel Smotrich said.

(Reuters) -Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved plans overnight for a settlement that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, a move his office said would bury the idea of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli military has long allowed settlers to take land in the West Bank and to build on it. Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced plans to build more than 3,000 new homes in the area,