Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed to continue settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, defying international pressure on Israel to stop seizing land that Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state.

Late on Tuesday, Smotrich announced the approval of a new settlement called Mishmar Yehuda, in Gush Etzion, a cluster of Jewish settlements south of Jerusalem, and said work would continue to approve further settlements. “We will continue the settlement momentum across the country,” he said in a statement.

The move comes days after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank incompatible with international law, returning to a long-standing US position overturned by former President Donald Trump’s administration.

The U.S. shift in stance marked a realignment with most of the world, which considers settlements built on territory it occupies illegal Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel itself disputes this view, citing the Jewish people’s historical and biblical ties to the land.

Palestinians say the expansion of settlements in the West Bank is part of a deliberate Israeli policy to undermine efforts to create an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Last week, Israeli ministers agreed to convene a planning council to approve the construction of some 3,300 homes in settlements, a decision Blinken called “disappointing” for Washington, which is pushing to restart efforts for a two-state solution.

Smotrich, a leader of one of the far-right parties, is pro-settler in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government as he himself lives in a settlement and has consistently supported further settlement building.

“This is also our response to the nations of the world,” said Shlomo Neeman, Mayor of the Gus Etzion Regional Council. “We will continue and strengthen Gush Etzion with more residents, more schools, more roads and more kindergartens.”

Israeli advocacy group Peace Now, which monitors settlement expansion, said in a report last month that there had been an unprecedented increase in settlement activity since the war in Gaza began in October.

According to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, just under 700,000 settlers live in 279 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, up from 520,000 in 2012.