Israel's move to build more than 3,000 homes in the occupied West Bank is expanding settlements and "burying the Palestinian question of statehood," the country's far-right minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has praised.

The project, dubbed E1, would divide the West Bank in two, cutting it off from occupied East Jerusalem.

The site, located between East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, has been a major international concern for decades.

Building here would cut off the West Bank from the other occupied East Jerusalem.

Smotrich said that this plan undermines the Palestinian statehood claim, adding, "There is no recognition or any entity that recognizes it."