BETHLHEM, August 20, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli authorities approved the constructing of 106 new housing units in the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, to the south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, Hasan Breijieh, a local activist, said on Monday.

He told WAFA that the Higher Planning Council, a department in the so-called Israeli Civil Administration, an arm of the military government, had previously approved the construction of 40 new housing units in Efrat but its settler residents rejected it and demanded the construction of 106 units, which were approved.

Breijieh said the settlement expansion is going to be at the expense of Palestinian farmers and landowners from the towns of al-Khader and Irtas, south of Bethlehem.

He said the landowners found papers of the military decision left in their land.

K.T./M.K.