Al-Quds municipal councilor Yosef Pepe Alalu said on Tuesday that the municipality approved the plan for the construction of the settlement units in Gilo settlement, AFP reported.

"This is a terrible decision which is a provocation against the Palestinians, the Americans and the whole world who oppose continued settlement building," the leftwing municipal councilor also said.

The new construction plans are in addition to the 1,200 settlement units approved by the Tel Aviv regime on Sunday.

The Palestinians have already been infuriated by the Sunday approval of the building of 793 settlement units in east al-Quds and 394 others in the West Bank. The new move is expected to add insult to injury.

The approval comes at a time when a new round of the talks between Israelis and the Palestinian Authority is to resume in al-Quds on Wednesday.

The plans for the construction of new settlements also received international condemnation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that Moscow was “seriously concerned” by the move. The statement also said that the approval that came ahead of the talks was “counterproductive” and “complicates the atmosphere of the talks."

Top Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, also said the PA is now mulling boycotting the talks with Israel.

"The settlement plans contradict the principle of confidence and goodwill that the resumption of negotiations should have provided," he said.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

SHI/SHI