France condemned the recent decisions by the Israeli authorities to authorize the construction of 2,342 new settler housing units in the West Bank as well as infrastructure projects near Bethlehem.

A statement issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “These decisions come amid a troubling context of accelerated settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and undermine the conditions for a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on the two-state solution.”

France called on the Israeli authorities to abandon these projects as well as any that could jeopardize the two-state solution.