RAMALLAH, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday to undertake its responsibilities towards the escalating Israeli settlement activity in the Palestinian territories.
The ministry said in an emailed press statement that the UNSC should shoulder its responsibility by working on preserving its resolutions concerning Palestine in order to "preserve what is left of the credibility of the entire international system."
The ministry statement slammed what it described "the escalating settlement attack on the Palestinian territories in general and the new settlement plans to build 260 new settlement units in Hebron."
It also condemned "the expansion of a settlement in southeast of Jerusalem by around 220 unity and the seizing of hundreds of acres of lands in the Jordan Valleys."
The statement said that the U.S. President Donald Trump "provides cover and encourages unprecedented greed in settlement in the Palestinian territories, particularly Jerusalem."
It stressed that settlement activity "requires the international community more than ever to provide international protection for the Palestinian people and hold Israeli officials for their crimes, violations and disobedience to international law and international humanitarian law."
UNSC issued Resolution 2334 in Dec. 2016 that called for ending settlement activity in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli left-wing right group Peace Now reported on Monday that Israeli authorities decided to build 794 units during the second quarter, compared to 279 in the same period in 2017.
Israeli settlement activity, deemed illegal by most world powers, continues to be one of the main issues of disagreement since the stop of the peace talks between Palestinians and Israeli in 2014.
The last round of U.S. sponsored negotiations between the two sides was ended after almost nine months of talks without achieving any breakthrough.
