(Reuters) -Israeli settlement building, a point of contention at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has come back into focus after Israel's far-right finance minister revived a plan that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.

Israel said Thursday it was moving forward with controversial plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, a development far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said would “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state.

TEL AVIV, (Reuters) -Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved plans overnight for a settlement that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, a move his office said would bury the idea of a Palestinian state.