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.

Smotrich’s settlement plans come as the international spotlight on Israel intensifies, with growing calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war amid mass concerns over the ongoing malnutrition crisis in Gaza and backlash over Netanyahu’s plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip.

A Israeli housing project in the West Bank mothballed since 2012 was revived by the finance minister in a quest to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.