The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy said today they were "deeply disturbed" by the Israeli government's decision to proceed with the construction of thousands of settlements in the West Bank.
In a joint statement, the heads of diplomacy of the five Western powers said that "we strongly oppose these unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution".