Israel approved 3,000 more housing units in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, the largest number in a wave of new construction plans that defy the international community and that open a forceful phase in the country’s expansion into land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Israeli forces began an operation to evacuate settlers from a West Bank outpost on Wednesday whose long-delayed destruction threatens to rupture Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s narrow coalition, dominated by ultranationalists who support settlements.

Israel has not slowed down its demolition of Palestinian structures in the occupied territories in 2017, after a year which saw a record number of buildings destroyed.

The Palestinian Authority said Tuesday that local elections that had been due to be held in the West Bank and Gaza last October will now take place on May 13.

Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator for the Palestinians, launched a scathing assessment of President Donald Trump’s first week in office Monday, saying that if his actions became a four-year trend, then “God help us, God help the whole world.”

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) on Tuesday defended the “settlement regulation bill” against Arab and left-wing criticism of it on moral grounds, saying that seizing Palestinian private property complies with democratic norms.

Despite improved power supply, Palestinians in besieged strip say durable solutions must be implemented.

One in every four Palestinian children in Gaza still needs to receive psychosocial support to overcome the traumatic memories of violence witnessed during Israel’s war on Gaza in 2014, according to a new report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.