Israel approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank on Wednesday, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement.
Israel's finance minister announced the plans a day after saying he had scrapped a deal that gave the Palestinian municipality control over certain planning and construction around Hebron's historic core, home to a flashpoint holy shrine.
Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Israeli troops remain deployed in the area but construction has generally required approval from the Palestinian municipality, including around the shrine.
The religious heritage of the city has made it a focal point for Israeli settlers, who are determined to expand the Jewish presence. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, said construction of a 1,000-square-metre building for a Jewish school in Hebron's historic core had been approved.
"We are continuing to build the Land of Israel in practice and to implement practical sovereignty in the settlements," Smotrich, who has said he wants to bury the idea of Palestinian statehood, said in a statement.
Palestinians view the settlements as a primary obstacle to peace, depriving them of land they want for a future state.
Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed and saying a Jewish presence has existed there for thousands of years.
Smotrich's building announcement comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved steps earlier this year to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.
Palestinian officials said the security cabinet steps amounted to de facto annexation of West Bank land by handing powers long held by the military to Israel's civilian government.
Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist who lives in Hebron, said he feared Israel's dismantling of parts of the Hebron Agreement would leave Palestinian residents of the city without basic services.
He said that move was aimed at making life miserable for Palestinians and forcing them to leave.
"It means ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from their homes, and more displacement," he said, describing Israel's actions as stealing Palestinian dreams to have a state "and to live without violence, without fear, with peace".
Jewish residents of Hebron welcomed Smotrich's announcement, saying it would remove what they described as the "burden" of a Palestinian municipality that had tempered their expansion.
Smotrich said the planning approvals for the Jewish school building as well as new homes in Jewish settlements would "create facts on the ground" to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
"This is a national move that strengthens our hold on the land," said Smotrich, who since taking office has led the expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank.
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