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E1 Tender Sparks Outcry
The Palestinian Authority and the United Kingdom condemned an Israeli decision to issue a tender for more than 1,200 new housing units in the occupied West Bank under Israel’s E1 settlement project.
“confine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to “disconnected enclaves surrounded by settlements.””
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC), a PA government body affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), warned in a statement on Tuesday that advancing the plans would confine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to “disconnected enclaves surrounded by settlements.”
The E1 plan, approved by the government last year, aims to build more than 3,400 housing units on roughly 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles) of Palestinian land and would link thousands of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement bloc.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband called the move an “unacceptable and destructive act” that could undermine the prospect of a Palestinian state, and said he told Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that Israel must immediately halt the plans, withdraw the tender, and stop all settlement expansion.
The submission of bids for the E1 project is due to close on October 19, just before elections are scheduled in Israel on October 27.
UK Demands Halt, Israel Pushes Back
Britain said it had summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires and demanded a halt to the E1 plan after Israeli authorities opened bidding for more than 1,200 homes in the area.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said, “The Israeli Government must halt E1 plans immediately, retract the tender and stop all settlement expansion,” and the UK pledged to unveil “a comprehensive set of measures” in the coming weeks, including sanctions targeting people involved in illegal settlement expansion.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar rejected Miliband’s statement, writing on X that he “rejected outright the statement of the UK Foreign Secretary and the patronising tone of his words.”
Saar also accused the UK of “blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism” which he said was fuelling antisemitic attacks against the British Jewish community.
The E1 plan seeks to build around 3,400 homes on the tract of land between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, and Peace Now said the tender was published on August 18 and opened immediately for bids.
Settler Expansion and Land Seizures
Beyond E1, al-Jazeera reported that settlement expansion in the West Bank is accelerating, with new outposts being established and others rebuilt that had been removed, alongside rising attacks by settlers and harassment of Palestinians and their lands.
“more than 1,200 settler attacks annually between 2023 and 2025”
In Qusra, south of Nablus, Palestinian Loai Abu Rida returned from the United States to find his home atop Ras al-Ain mountain surrounded by settlers and Israeli forces after settlers established a settlement outpost in the neighborhood, and he said the settlers continue to attack them despite the presence of the army.
UN OCHA data cited by al-Jazeera indicate documentation of more than 1,200 settler attacks annually between 2023 and 2025, including physical assaults, arson of property, and land confiscation.
Separately, the National Office for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said occupation authorities seized about 25,000 dunams of land in the West Bank over the past three years through 114 military orders aimed at expanding the influence of settlements and 140 orders to confiscate lands on the pretext of security needs.
The office said these orders contributed to the establishment of 53 settlements and outposts, while 81% of the issued orders were allocated to provide services to the settlements, reinforcing settlement expansion at the expense of Palestinian land.
