The Zionist government announces it will press ahead with its settlement expansion plan in the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) despite growing international criticism.

The Zionist government announces it will press ahead with its settlement expansion plan in the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) despite growing international criticism.

“We will continue to build and develop [the settlement construction projects in al-Quds] without apologizing for it," said Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s minister of military affairs, dismissing the international criticism over the move.

The city’s mayor Nir Barkat also said that the construction plans in the occupied Palestinian territories will continue "with full force."

The Zionist entity has come under mounting global pressure after the Israeli NGO, Peace Now, revealed a plan under which more than 26,000 settler units are going to be built in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood of East al-Quds.

The United States, the European Union as well as rights groups have condemned Israel, urging it to stop its settlement expansion projects on Palestinian land.

Palestine Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi has also slammed the plan to build more settler units, saying the entity was more interested in “stealing land than making peace.”