Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding plans to build settlements in the E1 area of the West Bank.

The UK condemn categorically the development of settlements. Settlements are illegal under international law and do not protect Israel. As the Foreign Secretary said on 20 May, the two-state solution is in peril, endangered not only by the war in Gaza, but by the spread of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts across the Occupied West Bank, with the explicit support of this Israeli government. The Foreign Secretary has been clear with Israeli counterparts that settlement expansion must stop and we continue to monitor Israeli developments in the West Bank.