Israel’s far-right finance minister has announced a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut if off from East Jerusalem, a move his office declared would "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state.

Development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to US pressure during previous administrations