Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he has directed the Defense Ministry body responsible for authorizing West Bank construction to advance a plan for a new neighborhood in the Dolev settlement, near where a terror attack last week killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb.
“We will deepen our roots and strike at our enemies. We will continue to strengthen and develop [Israeli] settlement,” Netanyahu said in a statement announcing the directive for some 300 new homes.
Binyamin Regional Council chairman Yisrael Gantz told The Times of Israel that the project that Netanyahu ordered be advanced at the next meeting of the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee had already been set and could have been on the agenda regardless. The Defense Ministry body’s next session is not slated for another three months.