A group of 12 European countries on Thursday urged Israel to scrap plans for the construction of more than 3,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank.
A day after the US criticized the plan, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden said in a joint statement that Israel should "immediately" reverse its decision to build the settlements.
An Israeli official said a planning forum of Israel's liaison office with the Palestinians gave preliminary approval for plans to build 1,344 housing units and its final go-ahead for projects to construct 1,800 homes.
It will be up to Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a centrist in Israel's politically diverse government, to give the nod for construction permits to be issued.
The United States said on Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" about Israel's plans to advance thousands of settlement units. It called such steps damaging to prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said it strongly opposes settlement expansion.
