Israeli human rights group Peace Now has denounced the ongoing construction of 31 housing units for illegal Israeli settlers in the heart of Hebron city, south of the occupied West Bank.

It said in a statement, “The [Israeli] government is acting like an annexation government, not as a change government. Since the 1980s, no government has dared to build a new settlement in the heart of the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank.”

“The Defense Minister has to stop construction, even if the plan was approved by the previous government. The settlement in Hebron is the ugly face of Israeli control of the territories. The moral and political price of having a settlement in Hebron is unbearable,” added the statement.

This week, settlers began construction work on a new settlement of 31 housing units in the heart of the Old City of Hebron, in the old bus station complex. This new construction in Hebron is the first in twenty years that is being carried out inside the Palestinian city, in a compound that has been occupied by the Israeli occupation army for years as a military base and is now being established as a settlement.

All kinds of Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories are considered illegal by the international community.