By Staff, Agencies Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to build 3,500 new illegal settler units in the strategically sensitive so-called E1 region of the occupied West Bank. The announcement on Tuesday came a week ahead of the Zionist entity’s general election - the third in less than 12 months - and is the latest in a string of promises to expand illegal settlements as Netanyahu also faces a corruption trial.

"I have given instructions to immediately publish for deposit the plan to build 3,500 housing units in E-1," Netanyahu said in a speech, describing the first phase of a planning process.

"This had been delayed for six or seven years." Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu's announcement "crossed all red lines" and he called on the international community to act