“There will be no Palestinian state,” Netanyahu says after approving major settlement project

‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Thursday that there would be no Palestinian state, speaking at a signing ceremony for a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

"We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us," Netanyahu said at the event in Maale Adumim, an ‘Israeli’ settlement just east of Jerusalem.

"We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security... We are going to double the city's population." The event was streamed live by his office.

‘Israel’ has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometre tract of land known as E1, but the plan had been stalled for years in the face of international opposition.

Last month, ‘Israel's’ far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed plans to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive parcel of land, which lies between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim.

His announcement drew condemnation, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying the settlement would effectively cleave the West Bank in two and pose an "existential threat" to a contiguous Palestinian state.

All of ‘Israel's’ settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have ‘Israeli’ planning permission.

Several Western governments, including Britain and France, have announced they intend to recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations later this month.

Britain has said it will take the step if ‘Israel’ fails to agree to a ceasefire in the devastating Gaza aggression.

Far-right ‘Israeli’ ministers have in recent months openly called for ‘Israel's’ annexation of the territory.

‘Israeli’ NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, said last week that infrastructure work in E1 could begin within a few months, and housing construction within about a year.

It said the E1 plan was "deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution".

Excluding ‘Israeli’-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israeli settlers.