Revealed: Israel has sped up settlement-building in East Jerusalem since Gaza war began

Israel’s government has accelerated the construction of settlements across East Jerusalem, with more than 20 projects totalling thousands of housing units having been approved or advanced since the start of the war in Gaza six months ago, planning documents show.

Ministries and offices within the Israeli government are behind all the largest and most contentious of the projects, sometimes in association with rightwing nationalist groups with a history of trying to evict Palestinians from their homes in parts of the city.

The expansion of a gated high-security settlement called Kidmat Zion, in the heart of the Palestinian neighbourhood Ras al-Amud on the eastern periphery of the city, is also set to go ahead pending comments from the public.

The project’s “initiator” is the Ministry of Justice, through an office known as the General Custodian, which claims responsibility for the land on which Givat Shaked will be built because it includes substantial tracts that had Jewish owners before 1948.

The interior minister at the time, Ayelet Shaked, rejected any claims of Palestinian control over Jerusalem’s east and said it was “unthinkable to prevent development and construction in this area, or anywhere else in the city”.

Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The GuardianThe scheme involves high-rise blocks containing 700 housing units that occupy the only land in Beit Safafa where the 17,000-strong majority Muslim community could expand to accommodate young people.