US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Friday he was “disappointed” by Israel’s announcement that it plans to build 3,000 new housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reported.

During a press conference in Buenos Aires, Blinken said the US has always argued that new settlements are counterproductive to achieving lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a representative of radical elements in Netanyahu’s cabinet, announced Thursday that plans are being developed to expand settlements in the West Bank.

Smotrich said the decision was made in response to an attack on a highway near Jerusalem on Thursday that left one Israeli dead and several wounded. Police said three attackers were fatally wounded at the scene.

According to the Shin Bet internal security service, they were three Palestinians from Bethlehem in the West Bank. “Let any terrorist who plans to harm us know that lifting a finger against Israeli citizens will result in a deadly blow and destruction and deepen our eternal rule over the entire Land of Israel,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel. on Smotrych.

The minister called this decision “an appropriate Zionist response”, the publication adds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released on Thursday night, for the first time in four and a half months since the start of the Gaza war, his “day after” plan for the conflict, in which he presented a demilitarized Palestinian enclave. with Israel’s self-sufficient security and without the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), DPA and EFE news agencies report.

Smotrich said the decision was made in response to an attack on a highway near Jerusalem on Thursday that left one Israeli dead and several wounded. Police said three attackers were fatally wounded at the scene.

According to the Shin Bet internal security service, they were three Palestinians from Bethlehem in the West Bank. “Let any terrorist who plans to harm us know that lifting a finger against Israeli citizens will result in a deadly blow and destruction, as well as a deepening of our eternal rule over the entire Land of Israel,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel. on Smotrych.

The minister called this decision “an appropriate Zionist response”, the publication adds.

An Israeli delegation led by the head of the Mossad arrived in Paris on Friday, hoping to “break the deadlock” in negotiations for a new truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said, quoted by AFP.