Palestine urged companies to avoid Israeli tenders for the E1 settlement project, warning participation could conflict with international legal obligations.

Israels settlement plans in the West Bank are another step away from peace. No facts may be created that make a two-state solution impossible, Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger wrote on US social media company X.

The United Kingdom threatened to sanction Israelis involved in West Bank settlement expansion after the Jewish state’s Lands Authority opened bids for 1,234 homes in the largely underdeveloped E1 section of the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry warns Israel's E1 project would further undermine prospects for two-state solution by cutting through occupied West Bank and damaging its geographical continuity.

Australia and Britain summoned Israeli diplomats in separate protests over Gaza aid worker killings and Israel’s expanding illegal West Bank settlements.